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| Adamantium | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The 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,Daken,Omega Red |
Adamantium is a fictional metal, most famously appearing as analloy inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. It is best known as the substance bonded to the characterWolverine's skeleton and claws. It also appears in the video gameThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and in the 1941 story "Devil's Powder" byMalcolm Jameson.
It was first mentioned inMarvel Comics in a story scripted by writerRoy Thomas and drawn byBarry Windsor-Smith andSyd Shores inThe Avengers #66 (July 1969). Here, it is part ofsupervillainUltron's outer shell.[1] In the stories where it appears, the defining quality of adamantium is its indestructibility.[2]
The word is a pseudo-Latinneologism (real Latin:adamans, from original Greekἀδάμας [=indomitable];adamantem [Latin accusative]) based on the English noun and adjectiveadamant (and the derived adjectiveadamantine) added to the neo-Latin suffix "-ium". The adjectiveadamant has long been used to refer to the property of impregnable, diamond-like hardness, or to describe a firm/resolute position. The nounadamant describes any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance and, formerly, a legendary stone/rock or mineral of impenetrable hardness and with many other properties, often identified withdiamond orlodestone.[3][4]
Prior to adamantium's introduction, the term was used as a brand for The Metallurgo Syndicate, Ltd., of Balfour House, and in the 1941 short story "Devil's Powder" byMalcolm Jameson.[4][5][6]
The components of Adamantium are kept in separate batches before molding. Adamantium is prepared by melting the blocks together, mixing the components while the resin evaporates. Adamantium has a stable molecular structure that prevents it from being further molded even if the temperature is high enough to keep it in its liquefied form. In its solid form, adamantium is near-impossible to destroy or fracture, and when molded to a sharp edge, can penetrate most lesser materials with minimal force.[7]
Adamantium is used inUltron's shell,[1]Wolverine's skeleton and claws,[8]Bullseye's skeleton,[9]Lady Deathstrike's skeleton and talons,[10]Cyber's skin and claws,[11]X-23's claws,[12] andRussian's body.[13]
Marvel's comic books introduced a variant of "true" adamantium, "secondary adamantium", to explain why in certain stories adamantium was shown to be damaged by sufficiently powerful forces.[14][15] Its resilience is described as far below that of "true" adamantium.[16][17]
In theUltimate Marvel imprint, adamantium possesses the additional ability to protect againsttelepathic probing or attacks. Unlike its main universe counterpart, adamantium is not depicted as indestructible.[18]
Scientist David Evans argued that as adamantium "is considered to be a very dense and indestructible metal" the most suitable real material to model it would beosmium, "the densest known metallic element".[19]
