No, I've never read it, but I've always been curious about it. I started reading Howard Chaykin's adaptation a few years ago, but somehow missed the end - it was a bit angst-ridden.
I found this back in 1997. Great book. And the original is seriously angst ridden, but an interesting if not a bit heavy on the "women will just ruin ya" stuff.
There is a bit of controversy about how much
Gladiator influenced Siegel. At the time (in the forties) Siegel claimed to never have read the book but I believe someone was able to dig a review or some mention Siegel made of it in a fanzine. There was a really nice article about this in an issue of ALTER EGO a few years back.
Fun fact: Iron Munro from Roy Thomas'
Young All-Stars was the son of Hugo Danner. I actually found those issues quite by coincidence in the same used book store I found
Gladiator.