History Main / RatMen

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': The villains Arabus and Zeb are served by a group of thuggish humanoid rats, nastier and meaner cousins to the anthropomorphic mice of Muensterville.

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* The ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' incarnation of ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' villain the Ratcatcher is AmbiguouslyHuman with rat-like characteristics. His followers are giant humanoid rats.

* In ''ComicBook/JoeTheBarbarian'', the hero, a diabetic teenager trying to stave off death, hallucinates that his pet fancy rat is a noble Rat Man warrior who aids him on his MaybeMagicMaybeMundane quest to defeat "Lord Death" and retrieve his insulin.
* In ''ComicBook/LoriLovecraft: The Dark Lady'', the true form of the demon who attempts to pull a GrandTheftMe on Lori is a giant humanoid rat.
* ''ComicBook/{{Mampato}}'' includes, among several other {{mutant|s}} species, a 40th century race of ratmen, who work as spies for villains.
* The second Cycle of ''ComicBook/{{Okko}}'' introduces the one-armed Samurai [[HandicappedBadass Setzuka]] and her nezumi companion, Nuuk, a bipedal, talking rat creature.

* The ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' and ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' villain Vermin is a human being mutated against his will into a cannibalistic, insane Rat Man.
* Master Splinter in ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''. Depending on the continuity, he was either a normal rat or a human ninja (Hamato Yoshi) who was mutated into a ratman.
* The Rat Man from ''ComicBook/TombOfTerror'' #5 is a man who was resurrected into a giant rat by a life-restoring fluid. He is intelligent and can talk and use things, but is also evil.

As is often the case with Lizard Folk, [[YouDirtyRat these creatures are likely to be villainous]]. Living in filth and squalor, reproduce at a dizzying rate and worship foul deities. Still, they can also be [[DarkIsNotEvil just another humanoid race with no particularly outstanding good or bad traits]], or victims of a ForcedTransformation. They may be (or descend from) rodents that developed humanoid features or humans that developed rodent features, whether through magic, science, radiation or natural selection.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'', "[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S2E8TheGoodTheBadAndTheCaseyJones The Good The Bad And Casey Jones]]"

* ''Literature/YakitoriSoldiersOfMisfortune'' has a sympathetic version. Even though they're fighting the protagonists, it's to free their homeworld Barka from the Trade Federation (the protagonists are human mercenaries from a VichyEarth). The opening scene of the anime has a Barkan contemplating a [[FatalFamilyPhoto Fatal Family Hologram]] before going into battle.

* ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiersOfVictory2005'': The ''Klarion'' and ''Manhattan Guardian'' miniseries briefly feature a race of sentient, bipedal rats who dwell beneath New York City's subways. Since they're still the size of ordinary rats, [[spoiler:Klarion's cat Teekl rather casually devours their king off-panel]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Snarfquest}}'': One character is a human prince who was been transformed into a rat man by an evil wizard, and is seeking to be restored to normal.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'': Among the various {{Beast M|an}}en inhabiting the WretchedHive of Klugetown are a very large anthropomorphic rat with prominent buck teeth and a more mouse-like Klugetowner with very large ears.

* In Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/BrainDead'' (aka ''Dead Alive'' in the States) the zombie plague is carried by the "Sumatran Rat-Monkey." It has as much in common with ratmen [[EvolutionaryLevels as monkeys do with human beings]].

* In ''Film/TheRatman'', a scientist creates a murderous humanoid rat creature named Mousey [[note]](played by Nelson de la Rosa, better known as the little assistant from ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1996'')[[/note]] in hopes of getting a Nobel Peace Price.

* In Creator/RobertRankin's ''The Garden Of Unearthly Delights'', the town of Kakkarta is inhabited by a race of rat-like humanoids with [[ToServeMan a taste for human flesh]]. They're even [[ShoutOut referred to]] as [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Skaven]].

* There is an [[http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/cursed_by_allah urban legend]] about a girl who threw the Koran at her mother and was turned into a rat girl by [[{{God}} Allah]]. This is accompanied by a picture, meant to "prove" the story as real, of the creature the girl had become, which was in fact that of a human-rat hybrid sculpture, orginally part of an art exhibit titled "Leather Landscape", by Patricia Piccinini.

* ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'' also has a race of rat-men called the Nezumi in it. Alongside the [[SnakePeople naga]], they're the only non-human race in the setting that isn't hostile towards humanity, although they do have a recurring problem with {{Cross Cultural Kerfuffle}}s.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', the Skaven are a race of ratmen that live in squalor and may be something of a TropeCodifier, having inspired numerous imitators in tabletop gaming. They are the most numerous race in the setting and have advanced {{Magitek}} equipment (like ratling guns and doomwheels) and would have taken it over long ago if their entire culture wasn't based on ChronicBackstabbingDisorder. One of the best known traits of the Skaven is that they don't exist. Within the Empire their existence is officially denied, though whether or not anyone believes this [[DependingOnTheAuthor varies between stories]]. The Skaven maintain the secret because although they massively outnumber humanity they are so paranoid and cowardly none want to risk it. The Empire keeps them a secret because the leadership fears that letting people know that a vast malevolent civilization lives under their feet would cause panic.
** The Skaven as a whole are essentially based on [[YouDirtyRat every single negative stereotype of rats]] in British culture, [[ANaziByAnyOtherName multiplied by their fascist instincts]]. They are ruled over by a quartet of "Great Clans" who bring in more nuanced rat stereotypes. Clans Skryre and Moulder are both based on the association of rats with scientific experiments; Skryre are {{Mad Scientist}}s who produce the highly dangerous and unstable {{magitek}} that the Under-Empire runs on, whilst Moulder are {{Evilutionary Biologist}}s who use surgery, selective breeding and mutagenic compounds to breed mutant Skaven and rat subspecies for use as beasts of war. Clan Pestilens[[note]][[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe a somewhat butchered spelling]] of [[{{Pun}} "pestilence"]][[/note]] doubles down on the association of rats with disease, being a plague-worshipping cult of diseased fanatics who hold hands in prayer so they can share their diseases with each other and then stab their way into infecting anything that isn't them. Finally, Clan Eshin tap into the association of ratfolk with Asian cultures (or at least homage Master Splinter of the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'') by being a clan of Skaven who migrated to Warhammer's version of China and Japan, learned martial arts, then came back as a clan of ninja-themed ratfolk mercenary-assassins. All of the above are ruled over by an angry, narcissistic, ''hungry'' minor chaos god called the Horned Rat[[note]][[FluffyTheTerrible no, really]][[/note]] who subsists entirely on the fear of his believers and will gladly devour his most fervent worshipers the instant they have outlived their usefulness. His edicts, genetically instilled in every Skaven and enforced by fear of a slow and painful death, are to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution kill anything that is not an ally or a leader]] ([[FantasticRacism especially if it is not a rat]]) and [[KlingonPromotion kill your allies and leaders once they're no longer useful]].

* ''Website/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'': In the story ''[[https://thecrewofthecoppercoloredcupids.wordpress.com/2022/01/01/the-end-of-the-homeworld/ The End of the Homeworld]]'', Famine, from the HorsemenOfTheApocalypse, looks a bipedal, sapient, "hunched, mangy-looking gray rat".

* The ''Literature/{{Legatum}}'' series has murids, which are scruffy, humanoid rat creatures who can talk and wear clothing like humans do.
%%* The WebAnimation/RatboyGenius, as well as Little King John.%%ZCE
* ''WebVideo/RatsSMP'': The main POV characters are rats, and qualify for this trope by virtue of their humanoid Minecraft skins, though they are all still [[{{Lilliputians}} under a block tall]]. Fan depictions vary on a sliding scale between this and depicting them as actual rats.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Film/RatsNightOfTerror'', the group of survivors gets decimated by common rats that seem to be driven from their underground habitat, making them extremely aggressive and dangerous. In the film's twist ending, it is revealed that [[spoiler: intelligent mutant rat-humans are responsible]].

* ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'' has the ratlings, a race of fast producing humanoids that are considered a menace for their unending hunger (which presumably also includes flesh) in the country of Procer. The young ratlings are rather small and barely sentinent, but if they manage to survive long enough they become "Horned Lords" - nearly the size of a house, horned, frightingly clever and so dangerous that a team of Named is required to put them down.

[[folder:Myths and Religion]]

** The ratlings are a more sinister take - typically subterranean dwelling, the size of regular rats (ratfolk, meanwhile, are around 3 feet tall), and both typically evil (their favorite food is [[EatsBabies children]]) and rather intelligent (all have spell-like abilities, and they're quite capable of becoming arcane casters). Beyond their size, they're easily distinguished from ratfolk in that their faces and hands, ironically, seem more human, whereas ratfolk are more rodentlike.

* ''VideoGame/EasternExorcist'' has rodent demons - humanoid rats - as the lowest-ranked enemies, showing up en masse in both campaigns.

[[AnimalThemedSuperbeing Ratman supervillains]] often have either "rat" or "vermin" somewhere in their names. Ratman civilizations are sometimes given [[FantasyCounterpartCulture a quasi-Japanese flair]] or called "Nezumi," which is simply the Japanese word for mouse or rat; the proper Japanese translation for Ratmen would be "Nezumi-jin."

* ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'': The ''Klarion'' and ''Manhattan Guardian'' miniseries briefly feature a race of sentient, bipedal rats who dwell beneath New York City's subways. Since they're still the size of ordinary rats, [[spoiler:Klarion's cat Teekl rather casually devours their king off-panel.]]