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Bacterial contamination is a challenging issue that affect various sectors such as health and industries. Among various approaches, the use of nanomaterials as an antibacterial agent gains a lot of interest. The most widely studied antibacterial nanomaterials are metal or metal oxide based, which are not stable in water and prone to agglomeration, resulting in the reduction of their toxicity. To overcome this problem, the incorporation of graphene-based materials such as graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) together with metal or metal oxide nanoparticles forming nanocomposites has been proposed. GO and rGO are known to exhibit some toxicity towards microbes, however the formation of nanocomposites has the potential to significantly increase the overall antibacterial activity compared to the use of GO/rGO or metal/metal oxide nanomaterials alone. This article reviews the antibacterial action graphene-based materials and the impact of nanocomposites formation on the overall performance and toxicity mechanism of graphene-based nanocomposites. The antibacterial activity of GO and rGO is elaborated, with specific highlight on the difference between GO and rGO antibacterial properties. Next, the antibacterial action of graphene-based nanocomposites with special focus on silver nanocomposites and zinc oxide nanocomposites is discussed. The antibacterial performance of silver-GO nanocomposites and silver-rGO nanocomposites is compared through data collection of the literature. Similarly, comparison of zinc oxide-GO nanocomposites and zinc oxide-rGO nanocomposites performance is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]