First published as a 49-page one-shot in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump's 1994 Autumn Special, the full-fledged series was published in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from October 2002 to July 2014, with its chapters collected in 20 tankōbon volumes.

The story starts off with a face-off between two rival superheroes, ZET and Alphas, and then traces their origins – Jin Kanzaki, a young man with the ability to transform into a superhuman being known as ZET, and Kouga Amagi, a young man with a strong sense of justice who uses technology to fight as Alphas.

[4][5] The chapter was collected, alongside three other one-shots by Katsura, in a single volume titled Zetman, released on July 4, 1995.

[6][7] It later started publication as a full-fledged series in the seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump on October 31, 2002,[8] and finished on July 24, 2014 (announced as the ending of "Act 1").

[11] Zetman was adapted into an anime television series directed by Osamu Nabeshima, with screenplay by Atsuhiro Tomioka, and character design by Hirotoshi Takaya.