Heroes like Wolverine and Captain America are known for their metallic accessories of
choice. Wolverine has his shiny claws and endoskeleton while Captain America has his
iconic shield. My question is, what are these made out of? And can we create this stuff
in our world? Let’s find out!
Hello and welcome to the Show With Issues, I’m Auram, and let’s start with the most
iconic of Marvel’s fictional metals, Adamantium! Adamantium is an extremely dense iron-based
alloy that is virtually indestructible. Now, it depends on the type of Adamantium we’re
talking about, but in almost every case it’s pretty hard to break apart. So how is it made?
Well that’s the thing, its recipe is an extremely well-kept government secret that
only a few individuals know. Besides, even if you did know how to make it, it supposedly
costs an exorbitant amount of money to make even the smallest amount. What we do know;
however, is that Adamantium is created when multiple chemical resins are mixed and heated
together at 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. After 8 minutes in this temperature, the mixture
solidifies and there ya have it; Adamantium!
The biggest reason you’ve probably heard of Adamantium is because of Wolverine, whose
skeleton and claws are completely coated in the stuff. What’s interesting here though
is that the metal that Logan is covered in isn’t 100% Adamantium, it’s not pure.
See, the original form of Adamantium, now known as Proto-Adamantium, was created by
Dr. Myron Maclain during World War II in an effort to create an indestructible metal.
One day when Dr. Maclain was taking an accidental nap at his lab bench, some of the materials
he was working with at the time slowly formed into a new alloy. This new alloy was formed
of steel, Vibranium (which we’ll get into later), and another unknown catalyst. The
sample was formed into a disc-like frisbee shape and later became Captain America’s
shield! This version of Adamantium has never been recreated and has also literally only
been broken four times: once at the hands of Doctor Doom coupled with the powers of
the Beyonder, once by Thanos with the help of the Infinity Gauntlet, once by the Molecule
Man at full throttle, and once by the Serpent after amassing the fear-power of everyone
on Earth during Fear Itself.
So, what does this make Wolverine’s skeleton and claws? The Weapon X program, who are the
ones responsible for giving Logan his shiny endoskeleton, created a Proto-Adamantium-like
alloy called True Adamantium, also known as Primary Adamantium. This alloy, unlike Proto-Adamantium,
is possible to recreate and is much easier to manipulate.
I mentioned earlier that Adamantium is only indestructible in almost every case. That’s
because, over the years of people trying to recreate adamantium there were a lot more
failures than successes. The first of these is “Secondary Adamantium” which is pretty
simply just a cheaper, slightly less durable version of True Adamantium. In a similar vein
there’s Carbonadium, which is an even more malleable and cheaper version of Adamantium
itself. Some uses of Carbonadium you would know are in Doctor Octopus’s tentacles and
Omega Red’s coil...things...
Some more examples of Adamantium across the Marvel Mythos include Sabretooth’s claws
and skeleton, Cyber’s skin, the shells of multiple versions of Ultron, Bucky Barnes’
Captain America suit, X-23’s claws, and many more.
So what if you wanted to create an indestructible flying frisbee or coat your bones in metal?
Without noting how heavy that frisbee would be or how you would more-than-likely die because
of the stress that the metal would have on your body, let’s figure out if this stuff
could exist! At its core, Adamantium is just an indestructible metal; simple as that, the
stuff just can’t be broken in any sense of the imagination. So what’s the strongest
metal in our world? That title can be passed around based on what exactly you’re measuring,
but, generally, it goes to Steel, an iron-carbon alloy. Steel has a melting point of around
3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and is extremely dense, it’s more or less indestructible
for the uses it's put to today. The downside here is that it’s just not very practical
for what we’re trying to accomplish. Sure it’s good for industrial-use and stuff like
that, but you can’t really make weapons out of it because of how heavy the material
is. For example, a 1 foot by 1 foot slab of steel, with 5 inches of thickness, clocks
in at around 200 pounds. That’s like two Octopi! Or one me! So is there anything else
out there that’s lighter than steel, but just as strong? Well, kind of. Titanium, which
is just about as strong as steel, has the highest strength-to-weight ratio calculated
today. Strength-to-weight ratio, also known as specific strength, is the calculation of
a material’s strength divided by its density. What this means for Titanium is that it’s
basically lighter than Steel. A sheet of Titanium cut to the same specifications that we cut
our Steel to earlier clocks in at around 117 pounds. Still not ideal, but that’s nearly
half of the weight of Steel. So I guess if you wanted to make a small shield or dagger
out of Titanium it could work. And hey, you already have a theme song ready to go if you
do!
The point here is that Adamantium, or something close enough, doesn’t quite exist yet, but
it could in the future. Whether it be a Titanium-alloy or some crazy space metal from Marpiter or
whatever else, someday I believe we can all cosplay proudly as Wolverine without having
to worry about people telling us that we’re not being 100% accurate to the source material!
Although, I’m not sure how conventions will feel about people with actual Adamantium claws
walking around.
Enough real-world talk though, let’s get back to our beloved comics! Not to keep beating
on the subject of Adamantium or anything, but there is another metal out there which
is actually what inspired Dr. MacLain to start his experiments during World War II. This
metal is called Adamantine and is the choice metal of the Olympian Gods seeing as it is
virtually indestructible, not unlike Adamantium. The biggest example of Adamantine out there
is in Hercules’ Golden Mace weapon. There’s not really much else to say about this metal
though, so let’s move on to the one all you MCU fans probably know, Vibranium!
Vibranium is kind of the Kroger-brand Adamantium. It’s much cheaper to use, seeing as it is
found naturally across the world as a result of a meteorite hitting Earth 10,000 years
ago, and is a lot more malleable. In fact, Black Panther, who has access to tons of the
stuff since he’s the king of Wakanda, has his suit laced with the metal. The key difference
between Vibranium and any other metal is, like the name implies, it absorbs vibrations
and energy. This is actually one of the reasons Proto-Adamantium is so strong. The Vibranium
inside of it adds the ability to absorb an extreme amount of vibrations which makes it
nearly indestructible. The energies that Vibranium can absorb include soundwaves, kinetic energy,
and just normal vibrations. Another unique trait of Vibranium is that it has the ability
to enhance mystical energies. This, however, does make the material extremely unstable
and is very hard to manage at that point.
Just like Adamantium though, Vibranium also has some variations. The classic version of
vibranium is known as Wakandan Vibranium, seeing as it’s mostly found in the mines
of Wakanda, but when it first appeared in Marvel comics, it was totally different. Now
known as Anti-Metal, this version of Vibranium is native to the Savage Land, a secluded area
of Antarctica that has remain unchanged for millions of years. It’s basically just Marvel’s
excuse to have dinosaurs still around. Keeping with the theme of having pretty on-the-nose
names, Anti-Metal makes other metals liquefy around it when hit. What’s happening here
is that the Anti-Metal emanates a vibration that causes the molecular bonds in solid metals
to weaken, causing them to get all sad and droopy.
Another variation on Vibranium is known as Reverbium. Created by Sajani Jaffrey, a scientist
at Horizon Labs, Reverbium is pretty much Anti-Metal, except instead of liquefying metals
around it, it just creates blasts of vibrations blowing everything away in its radius.
Other than Black Panther’s suit, which I mentioned earlier, what else is Vibranium
used in? Obviously Captain America’s shield is one of them, even though it’s not made
of pure vibranium, Misty Knight’s bionic arm is made of Vibranium, the claws in Black
Panther’s gloves are made out of Anti-Metal, etc.
So at this point some of you may be wondering what Thor’s Hammer, Mjolnir, is made out
of. That would be none other than the space-metal known as Uru! Native to Nidavellir, home of
the Dwarves and one of the Ten Realms, Uru is known for being one of the strongest mystical
conduits. It has a natural affinity to absorb “magical energy” like a sponge and has
the potential to be indestructible. This is actually how Mjolnir seems to have some semblance
of sentience, it’s filled with enchantments that allow it to do things like boomerang
back to Thor or allow the user to control storms. In fact, Mjolnir has over twenty spells
inside it, but that’s a video for another time. So all of you people saying that just
because Jane Foster can pick up the hammer doesn’t mean she gains the powers of the
Odinson, you can just shut right up!
So what else is made of Uru? A lot of things actually. Odin’s spear, Gungnir, Beta Ray
Bill’s Weapon, the Stormbreaker, Heimdall’s sword, the Odinson’s prosthetic arm, and
even all of the weapons that Tony Stark forged for the Mighty, the resistance team that fought
against the Worthy during the Fear Itself event.
So those are the big three of Marvel’s fictional metals: Adamantium, Vibranium, and Uru. Of
course, if I missed any of them, let me know in the comments! And while you’re at it,
I’ve got a question for you; if Adamantium were real and you had an unlimited amount
of it, what would you do with it? I feel like I’d just coat all of my electronics in it
so they don’t break ever. I’m super creative guys. Anyway, be sure to subscribe before
you head out so you don’t miss out on anything that I upload! And, as always, thank you so
much for watching. Next time I coat myself in Adamantium and then fall to the ground
and die, because… don’t do that… it’ll kill you.