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| Adamantium | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Avengers #66 (July1969) |
| 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,Captain America: Brave New World |
Adamantium is a fictional metalalloy, most famously appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. It is best known as the substance bonded to the characterWolverine's skeleton and claws.
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 very firm/resolute position (e.g.He adamantly refused to leave). 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]
In 1912, The Metallurgo Syndicate, Ltd., of Balfour House, used "Adamantium" (with a capital 'A') as a product brand when they exhibited"two of their specialities in the shape ofAdamantium bronze - a high-class non-corrosive, anti-friction metal..."[5]
The term "adamantium" occurred in the 1941 short story "Devil's Powder" byMalcolm Jameson, appearing inAstounding Stories:[6]"It was a bullet. It was a small slug ofadamantium, the toughest and hardest of all metals..."
Adamant and the literary formadamantine occur in works such asThe Faerie Queene,Paradise Lost,Gulliver's Travels,The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,The Lord of the Rings,[4] and the filmForbidden Planet (as "adamantine steel").
All these uses predate the use ofadamantium in Marvel's comics.[4]
According to Marvel's comics the components of the alloy are kept in separate batches—typically in blocks of resin—before molding. Adamantium is prepared by melting the blocks together, mixing the components while the resin evaporates. The alloy must then be cast within eight minutes. Marvel Comics' adamantium has an extremely 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, It is near-impossible to destroy or fracture in this state, and when molded to a sharp edge, can penetrate most lesser materials with minimal force.[7]
The Marvel Comics character Wolverine discovers an adamantium-laced skull in the villainApocalypse's laboratory and says it seems to have been there for "eons".[8]
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 conventional forces.[15][16] Its resilience is described as far below that of "true" adamantium.[17][18]
Appearances of secondary adamantium in Marvel comic books include the casing of the supercomputer F.A.U.S.T.,[19] a suit constructed by F.A.U.S.T. andBlastaar forStilt-Man,[20] a retractable protective dome around Exile Island,[21] and an army of Ultron duplicates.[22]
In stories published under the Marvel ComicsUltimate Marvel imprint, adamantium is highly durable and can shield a person's mind fromtelepathic probing or attacks. It is a component of the claws and skeleton ofUltimate Wolverine and of theUltimate Lady Deathstrike character. This version of adamantium is not unbreakable. InUltimates #5, the Hulk breaks a needle made of adamantium. InUltimate X-Men #11 (December 2001), an adamantium cage is damaged by a bomb. InUltimate X-Men #12 (January 2002), one ofSabretooth's four adamantium claws is broken.[23]
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".[24]
