The story concerns a scientist who invents an "alkaline free-radical" serum to "improve" humankind by granting the proportionate strength of an ant and the leaping ability of the grasshopper.

The scientist injects his pregnant wife with the serum and his son Hugo Danner is born with superhuman strength, speed, and bulletproof skin.

Professor Abednego Danner lives in a small, rural Colorado town, and has a somewhat unhappy marriage to a conservative religious woman.

Obsessed with unlocking genetic potential, Danner experiments with a tadpole (which breaks through the bowl he's keeping it in), and a pregnant cat, whose kitten displays incredible strength and speed, managing to maul larger animals.

Danner then journeys to France and joins the French Foreign Legion fighting in World War I, where his bulletproof skin comes in handy.

"According to Ellis Award nominee Andrew Salmon, "The writing is edgy, crisp, and fast-paced, with surprising disregard for the conventions and morals of the 30’s.

Thomas later created a character named Arn "Iron" Munro in the DC comic book Young All-Stars, as an homage to Gladiator.

[6] The novel was adapted into a four issue prestige style comic book by acclaimed writer Howard Chaykin with art by Russ Heath.

[citation needed] Season 2 Episode 2 of the television show Fringe, entitled "Night of Desirable Objects", may have been inspired by the novel Gladiator.

[citation needed] The book appears in the house of fictional character Hollis Mason (aka Nite Owl) in issue#1, page 9 of the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.