| Adamantium | |
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| Biographical Information | |
| Name: | Adamantium |
| Affiliations: | |
| First appearance: | Strategy X |
Adamantium is the nigh-indestructible metal well known for being the same metal that had been surgically grafted to the skeleton and claws of Wolverine.
At some point in history, the metal was developed and then grafted onto a mutant with a remarkable healing factor in the hopes of creating a powerful weapon. Unfortunately, the mutant that would be called Wolverine escaped. Years later, another attempt at creating an Adamantium-endowed mutant weapon was made, but with similar results. A female clone of Wolverine was made and put through the Weapon X program at age twelve.
Description[]
Adamantium is a virtually indestructible man-made steel alloy which does not occur in nature and whose exact chemical composition is a United States government classified secret. Adamantium is not an element: its properties do not qualify it for any known space on the Periodic Table of Elements. Rather, adamantium is a series of three closely-related compounds of Iron created through a secret process discovered by the metallurgist, Dr. Myron MacLain.
MacLain began experimenting with the process that creates adamantium as a young scientist in the employ of the United States government in the early 1940s. By accident he created a special adamantium compound, which is more durable than any form of adamantium created since, and then through another accident, fused this adamantium sample he had created with a sample of an unknown metal catalyst and the metal which is now known to have been Wakandan Vibranium. The result was the large rounded specimen of alloy which is the most virtually indestructible substance known to man. This alloy specimen was given to Captain America to serve as his Shield. The exact chemical composition of Captain America's shield and the exact degree to which it is indestructible have never been determined, nor has MacLain or anyone else ever learned how to duplicate either the special adamantium compound used in the creation of the shield, which Is known as Proto-Adamantium, or the process which fused the Proto-Adamantium with the Wakandan Vibranium.
Over the following decades, MacLain experimented, attempting to duplicate the process that created adamantium. Finally, in recent years, although he realized that he could never again create Proto-Adamantium, he succeeded in developing the process by which the substance known as True Adamantium is created. True Adamantium is nearly as strong as the Proto-Adamantium used to create Captain America's shield, and is, for virtually all practical purposes, indestructible. The degree of indestructibility varies directly with the thickness of the adamantium. A direct blow from Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, conveyed with the thunder god's full strength, will only slightly dent a solid cylinder of true adamantium. A sufficient mass of adamantium could survive a direct hit from a nuclear weapon.
Adamantium is created through the mixing of certain chemical resins whose composition is a United States government secret. For eight minutes after the resins are mixed, the adamantium can be molded into a particular shape as long as it is kept at a temperature of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. After this brief period, the process of creating adamantium is completed, and it is cured. The extremely stable molecular structure of the adamantium prevents it from being molded further, even if the temperature remains high enough to keep it in liquid form. Only a device called a “Molecular Rearranger” can alter the form of hardened adamantium.
The United States government has shared the secret of adamantium’s composition with certain of its allies, and the secret has also fallen into the hands of various criminals, such as the Constrictor, who has made special weaponry from adamantium. Wolverine possesses indestructible claws and skeleton of true adamantium that was bonded into his bones during Weapon X.
People exposed to Adamantium[]
- Wolverine's skeleton and claws
- Sabretooth's skeleton
- X-23's claws