Adamantium (comics)

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Adamantium is a fictional chemical substance and metal alloy in the Marvel Universe. Hercules himself used an enchanted golden mace made of Adamantine, which was supposed to be indestructible. In the modern fiction universe, the virtually-indestructible Adamantium was created when Dr. Myron MacLain reverse-engineered Captain America's Vibranium-alloy shield in Avengers #66 (July 1969). The Vibranium alloy of the shield is the only man-made substance in the Marvel Universe known to be more durable than Adamantium.

Contents

1 Properties
2 Adamantium as Key Component
3 Types of Adamantium

3.1 '''True Adamantium'''
3.2 '''Secondary Adamantium'''
3.3 '''Adamantium Beta'''
3.4 '''Carbonadium'''

4 Captain America's Shield -- Adamantium or Not?
5 Adamantium in the Ultimate Marvel Universe
6 Notes and references
7 See also

Properties

Magneto ripping the Adamantium from Wolverine's bones.

Adamantium is virtually indestructible; however, it can be manipulated/destroyed under certain conditions. The same technologies responsible for molding adamantium are capable of disintegrating it, such as a molecular rearranger needed to shape Adamantium into practically useful forms. Antarctic vibranium produces waves that melt all metals, including Adamantium. The metal is also affected by magnetism; Magneto once used his magnetic abilities and ripped the Adamantium bonded to Wolverine's bones right out from his body, without appearing to need to manipulate it on a molecular level.

One known variant is Carbonadium, a malleable form used by the villain Omega Red. Adamantium is apparently astronomically expensive to create and the process is unreliable often resulting in an inferior grade. As a result, supervillains almost never try to create it but seek instead to harvest it from existing sources and rearrange it on a molecular level: Apocalypse harvested Adamantium from Sabretooth, and Genesis harvested Adamantium from Cyber.

Adamantium as Key Component

Adamantium is used as the key component in several characters' equipment, including:

Wolverine's claws and skeleton.
Battlestar's shield.
Bullseye's spinal column and strips of reinforcement placed throughout his skeleton.
Captain America's shield was reverse-engineered to create Adamantium. Captain America briefly used a shield made of Adamantium, and the Captain America of Ultimate Marvel uses a shield entirely made of Adamantium.
Cyber's claws and skin.
a unique set of Doctor Octopus' arms (destroyed by molecular rearrangement).
Gambit's telescopic staff.
Lady Deathstrike's talons and skeleton.
A skeleton and claws that are currently bonded to Sabretooth.
The supercriminal Stilt-Man once used a Secondary Adamantium suit, which he lost to Thor.
The body of the robot TESS-One.
Some of Ultron's robotic bodies.
X-23's claws only (entire skeleton was to be bonded when she was older).

Types of Adamantium

X-Ray depicting Wolverine's Adamantium claws from the film X-Men

True Adamantium

True Adamantium is created through the mixing of certain chemical resins whose composition is a government secret. This process is extremely expensive and, as a result, True Adamantium is very rare. It was discovered in an attempt to duplicate Captain America's shield and resembles Captain America's shield on a molecular level, yet it contains no Vibranium. Adamantium of sufficient mass could even withstand a direct hit from a nuclear weapon.[Marvel Directory on Adamantium] Only precise molecular rearrangement, or cosmic-level power such as that of the Infinity Gauntlet, can scratch or dent it. Magneto once used his powers to rip the Adamantium out of Wolverine through his skin, which implies that Adamantium is either ferromagnetic or strongly paramagnetic.

Secondary Adamantium

As True Adamantium is extremely difficult and expensive to create or manipulate, some parties found a way to duplicate it on a larger and more cost-effective scale, but at the expense of quality and durability. For all practical purposes, Secondary Adamantium is indestructible. Conventional weapons, such as ballistic missiles, have no effect on it; it is far stronger than any type of steel. However, extraordinary blunt force (such as a punch from a character with vast superhuman strength) can warp or break it. Unconventional or alien forms of energy discharges have also been known to warp or damage Secondary Adamantium. Writers created Secondary Adamantium to deal with supposedly indestructible Adamantium having been damaged or destroyed in the past: all such instances were appearances of Secondary Adamantium.

Adamantium Beta

Adamantium Beta is a new metal created as a side-effect of the process of bonding True Adamantium to Wolverine's bones. His Healing Factor not only allowed him to survive the process, but it also induced a molecular change in the metal. Adamantium Beta functions identically to True Adamantium, but it does not inhibit the biological processes of bone. Adamantium Beta was first explained in Wolverine (vol.2) #80 (1994).

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Carbonadium

Carbonadium is a resilient, unstable metal that is vastly stronger than steel but more flexible than Adamantium. It has been implied by writers that it is molecularly similar to or even a variant of Adamantium, but the extent of the relation has not been revealed. The process to create Carbonadium is apparently even more difficult and expensive than that required to produce Adamantium as there is only one Carbonadium Synthesizer in the world. Due to its malleability, Carbonadium is considerably less durable than true Adamantium. For all practical purposes, Carbonadium is indestructible. Omega Red is an adversary of Wolverine's who has Carbonadium coils, allowing him to drain life energies.

Captain America's Shield -- Adamantium or Not?

For years it has been said that Captain America's shield contained or was made of Adamantium, but this is not the case. The process that created this shield was never duplicated and is not understood. It is made of an alloy that includes Wakandan Vibranium, steel and an unknown catalyst that allowed the two metals to fuse. It is essentially indestructible, and is even stronger than any known form of Adamantium, although it can be damaged or destroyed given extraordinary (even by Marvel Universe standards) force. A mistake often made by readers is that Captain America's shield is made entirely of Adamantium, or of Vibranium. Since Adamantium was not developed until after Captain America was revived from suspended animation, this would be impossible. In fact, the shield's material has radically different properties from either, resulting in far greater resilience. The source of this confusion/error is an entry made in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (and repeated many times since), which stated that the shield was an Adamantium-Vibranium alloy. However, as revealed via retcon in Kurt Busiek's 2001 Avengers Annual , Adamantium was created in an attempt to duplicate the material of the shield.

Adamantium in the Ultimate Marvel Universe

Although objects composed of Adamantium, within the mainstream Marvel Universe, are practically indestructible and have withstood assaults from beings as powerful as Thor, the Hulk, Hercules, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and Thanos without sustaining damage, there is evidence that brings into question the status of Adamantium, within the Ultimate Marvel Universe, as "unbreakable".

The Ultimate Marvel version of Wolverine possesses an Adamantium laced skeleton and retractable claws, just as the mainstream version. However, in the first issue of the Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk mini-series, the Hulk ripped Wolverine in half. Both of Wolverine's legs were ripped from his body during the course of his battle with the Hulk. This sparked heated debate and controversy among comic book fans, since it has always been assumed that, despite being two entirely different realities, Adamantium was still indestructible in both. There are numerous theories supported by various comic book fans, however, Marvel has offered no official explanation at this time - it is noteworthy, however, that the series itself specifically takes the time to make the point that while Wolverine's bones are "supposed to be unbreakable," his joints are not. However, it should be noted that in the Ultimate X-Men story arc The Tomorrow People, Colonel Wraith refers to Adamantium as being only "semi-indestructible".

During the initial appearances of the Ultimate Marvel Universe's version of Sabretooth, it was revealed that he has four retractable Adamantium claws implanted within each of his forearms. Through circumstances that have yet to be explained, one of the claws implanted within Sabretooth's left forearm is broken.

Another incident questioning Adamantium's status as "unbreakable" in the Ultimate Marvel Universe involves the Ultimate Hulk breaking a needle made of Adamantium.

Aside from the controversy surrounding Adamantium's status as "unbreakable" within the Ultimate Marvel Universe, there is at least one other difference concerning Adamantium between the two continuities. Adamantium within the Ultimate Marvel Universe appears to be highly effective in blocking telepathic probes. Ultimate Wolverine's mind has been rendered extremely resistant to telepathy due to the presence of the Adamantium laced to his skull. Within the mainstream Marvel Universe, Adamantium has shown no special ability to protect an individual's mind from telepathic probing.