Adamantium

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 accusative]) 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.

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 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.

Adamantium is used in Ultron's shell, Wolverine's skeleton and claws, Bullseye's skeleton, Lady Deathstrike's skeleton and talons, Cyber's skin and claws, X-23's claws, and Russian's body.

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. Its resilience is described as far below that of "true" adamantium.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel imprint, adamantium possesses the additional ability to protect against telepathic probing or attacks. Unlike its main universe counterpart, adamantium is not depicted as indestructible.

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".

References

References

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12. ''[[X-23: Target X]]''
13. ''[[Punisher (comic book). The Punisher]]'' (vol. 6) #4 (October 2001)
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