Adamantium

Not to be confused with Adamantane.

Adamantium
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Avengers #66 (July 1969)
Created by	Roy Thomas Barry Windsor-Smith Syd Shores
In story information
Type	Metal
Element of stories featuring	Wolverine, Ultron, Bullseye, Lady Deathstrike, X-23

Adamantium is a fictional metal alloy appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, and is best known as the substance bonded to the character Wolverine's skeleton and claws. Adamantium was created by writer Roy Thomas and artists Barry Windsor-Smith and Syd Shores in Marvel Comics' Avengers #66 (July 1969), which presents the substance as part of the character Ultron's outer shell. In the stories where it appears, the defining quality of adamantium is its practical indestructibility.

Etymology

The word is a pseudo-Latin neologism (real Latin: adamans, adamantem [accusative]) based on the English noun and adjective adamant (and the derived adjective adamantine) with the neo-Latin suffix "-ium," implying a metal. The adjective has long been used to refer to the property of impregnable, diamondlike hardness, or to describe a very firm/resolute position (e.g. He adamantly refused to leave). The noun adamant has long been used to designate any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance and, formerly, a legendary stone/rock or mineral of impenetrable hardness and with many other properties, often identified with diamond or lodestone. Adamant and the literary form adamantine occur in works such as Prometheus Bound, the Aeneid, The Faerie Queene, Paradise Lost, Gulliver's Travels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Lord of the Rings, and the film Forbidden Planet (as "adamantine steel"), all of which predate the use of adamantium in Marvel's comics.

History and properties

Within Marvel Comics stories, adamantium is a group of man-made metal alloys of varying durability, but all are nearly indestructible. Adamantium is inadvertently invented by the American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain in an attempt to recreate his prior discovery, a unique alloy.

Before molding, the components of the alloy are kept in separate batches, typically in blocks of resin. Adamantium is prepared by melting the blocks together, mixing the components while the resin evaporates. The alloy must then be cast within eight minutes. Adamantium's extremely stable molecular structure prevents it from being further molded even if the temperature is high enough to keep it in its liquefied form. In its solid form, it is dark metallic grey, shiny, and resembles high-grade steel or titanium. It is almost impossible to destroy or fracture in this state and when molded to a razor's edge, it can penetrate most lesser materials with minimal application of strength.

Despite its utility in armament and armature, adamantium is rarely used due to its high cost, lack of source materials and inability to be manipulated easily.

Wolverine once discovers an adamantium-laced skull in Apocalypse's laboratory and says it seemed to have been there for eons.

Adamantium as key component

Adamantium is used as the key component in several instances in Marvel Comics publications and licensed products, including:

• Ultron's outer shell.
• Wolverine's skeleton and claws.
• Agent Zero's combat knife and bullets.
• The outer skin of some of Alkhema's robotic bodies.
• Battlestar's shield.
• Bullseye's spinal column, skull and some strips coating several of his bones.
• Certain iterations of Captain America's shield.
• Constrictor's original wrist-mounted, prehensile metal coils.
• Cyber's claws and skin.
• One particular set of Doctor Octopus' arms.
• The outer layer of Citizen V's rapier.
• Lady Deathstrike's skeleton and talons.
• One of Mister Fantastic's labs for extremely dangerous experiments.
• Moon Knight's crescent blades.
• A unique suit of armor once used by the villain Stilt-Man.
• The outer skin of TESS-One.
• One of several layers of containment at the superhuman incarceration facility known as the Vault.
• An outer coating on the Swordsman's blades.
• A special brand of bullet in the Iron Man suit's ballistic weapons.
• Bullets used by Underworld.
• X-23's claws.
• Doom 2099's suit.
• Bucky Barnes' Captain America suit is laced with adamantium.
• A statue of the Hulk, sculpted by Alicia Masters.
• Hammerhead's head is made of adamantium.
• Hawkeye has used arrowheads made of adamantium.
• The Russian's body was augmented with both adamantium and superhard plastics following his resurrection by General Kreigkopf.

Adamantium in the Ultimate Marvel imprint

Within the Marvel Comics Ultimate Marvel imprint, adamantium is highly durable and is able to effectively protect a person's mind from telepathic probing or attacks. It has been shown as a component of the claws and skeleton of the Ultimate Wolverine and Ultimate Lady Deathstrike characters. The shield of Ultimate Captain America is composed entirely of vibranium, which is a super-strong metal created before adamantium but the formula for which could not be replicated, therefore leading to the creation of adamantium. This version of adamantium is not unbreakable. In Ultimates #5, the Hulk breaks a needle made of adamantium. In Ultimate X-Men #11 (December 2001), an adamantium cage is damaged by a bomb. In Ultimate X-Men #12 (January 2002), one of Sabretooth's four adamantium claws is broken.

Carbonadium

Carbonadium is the Soviet Union's attempt at creating adamantium. Carbonadium is more malleable than adamantium and, while being vastly stronger than steel, is less durable than adamantium. Carbonadium, however, is for all practical purposes indestructible. It is used by Omega Red for his retractable carbonadium coils. Carbonadium is highly radioactive and objects composed of it have proven to disable the healing factors of Wolverine and his son, Daken, if implanted within the body. Deadpool used a carbonadium katana to kill Wolverine in the miniseries Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe. The only device that can produce this metal is known as the carbonadium synthesizer.

In other media

• The 2013 novel Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles by Ron Currie, Jr. refers to "the Adamantium of Emma's impassivity".
• In the first novel of the Halo Forerunners series, "Cryptum", ships are referenced to move though the air like a ribbon of steel and adamantium.
• In the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series, the robot character Chrome Dome is fitted with adamantium armor plating except for one single steel plate, due to adamantium's scarcity.
• In the videogames Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 4, 'Adamantium Skeleton' is a perk available upon levelling-up, which bestows greater resistance to limb damage.
• In the science-fiction franchise Warhammer 40,000, Adamantium is a highly rare and extremely durable metal used in the creation and maintenance of the most resistant forms of armour.