Adamantium is a fictional metal, most famously appearing as an alloy in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is best known as the substance bonded to the character Wolverine's skeleton and claws. It also appears in the video game , and in the 1941 story "Devil's Powder" by Malcolm Jameson.
First mention in Marvel comics
It was first mentioned in
Marvel Comics in a story scripted by writer
Roy Thomas and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith and
Syd Shores in
The Avengers #66 (July 1969). Here, it is part of
supervillain Ultron's outer shell.
In the stories where it appears, the defining quality of adamantium is its indestructibility.
Etymology
The word is a pseudo-Latin
neologism (real Latin:
adamans, from original Greek
ἀδάμας =indomitable;
adamantem Latin) based on the English noun and adjective
adamant (and the derived adjective
adamantine) added to the neo-Latin suffix "
-ium". The adjective
adamant has long been used to refer to the property of impregnable, diamond-like hardness, or to describe a firm/resolute position. The noun
adamant 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 with
diamond or
lodestone.
[ "adamant - definition of adamant". Oxforddictionaries.com.]
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" by Malcolm Jameson.
Fictional history and properties
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.
[ X-Men #109 (February 1978)]
Adamantium is used in Ultron's shell,[ X-Men #98 (April 1976)] Bullseye's skeleton,[ Daredevil #197 (August 1983)] Lady Deathstrike's skeleton and talons,[ Uncanny X-Men #205 (May 1986)] Cyber's skin and claws,[ #27 (September 2008)] X-23's claws,[ The Punisher (vol. 6) #4 (October 2001)]
Other versions
Secondary adamantium
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.
[ "Adamantium". Marvel.com. Retrieved June 3, 2020.] Its resilience is described as far below that of "true" adamantium.
[ "Adamantium". Marvel Directory.com. Retrieved June 3, 2020.][ The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #1 (August 1985)]
Ultimate Marvel
In the
Ultimate Marvel, adamantium possesses the additional ability to protect against
probing or attacks. Unlike its main universe counterpart, adamantium is not depicted as indestructible.
[ Ultimate X-Men #12 (January 2002)]
Comparison with real materials
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 be
osmium, "the densest known metallic element".
See also
