Finally, adamantium is being put to good use in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Well, not good use, but at least someone is using it now, which has taken way, way too long.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for episode 2 of VisionQuest
In the second episode of VisionQuest, which debuted Oct. 13 on Disney Plus alongside episode 1, the assassin Paladin (Todd Stashwick) uses adamantium bullets to do some real damage to Vision — or, White Vision (is that really what we’re calling him?). This marks the first time someone has actually made use of adamantium in the main timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite the fact that Disney bought Fox — and with it, the ability to use adamantium in storylines — way back in 2019.
The history of adamantium in the comics
Adamantium, of course, has commonly been an X-Men thing, as it is most famously the metal that Wolverine’s skeleton is coated with. Wolverine’s claws being made of adamantium goes back to his very first appearance, when he fought the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk issue 181 from 1974. In that comic, Wolverine’s claws were merely a part of his gloves, not originating from his actual body, but he does state that they’re made from “diamond-hard adamantium.”
In 1975, Wolverine went from being a one-off Hulk villain to a member of the new X-Men lineup, which is where it was stated that his skeleton was coated in adamantium and that the claws rest in his forearms and pierce through his skin when they’re out. Because of the metal’s relationship to Wolverine, adamantium was off-limits to Marvel Studios and its films as it was all tied up with Fox until 2019.
But adamantium dates back earlier than even Wolverine’s first appearance. It was first mentioned in Avengers issue number 66 from July 1969, when it is stated as the substance which makes up Ultron’s outer shell. This comic was written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith and Syd Shores, making them the creators of adamantium. Given this origin, it makes adamantium’s semi-debut in VisionQuest rather fitting, as Vision was originally meant to be the final form of Ultron in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (In the MCU, both Vision and Ultron are made from vibranium instead.)
I say semi-debut because VisionQuest isn’t the first time adamantium was mentioned in the MCU. Of course, it appears throughout Deadpool & Wolverine, as that’s what Wolverine’s claws are made of, but very little of Deadpool & Wolverine takes place in the “sacred timeline” of Universe 616, and it’s only Deadpool that ventures there, not Wolverine.
Adamantium in the MCU
Adamantium first appeared in the main timeline in Captain America: Brave New World, but if you don’t remember it in there, or skipped that one altogether, that’s certainly understandable. In the movie, President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) explains that adamantium is a new metal that was discovered on Celestial Island.
Celestial Island isn’t really an island; it’s a corpse. Back in the 2021 film Eternals (also a stinker), it is revealed that Earth holds the seed for a giant godlike alien known as a Celestial, specifically a Celestial known as Tiamut the Communicator. In that movie, as Tiamut is emerging from the Earth, an Eternal named Sersi (Gemma Chan) kills him by turning him into stone, saving the planet in the process. From that point on, Tiamut is merely an island formation in the Indian Ocean.
As Ross explains in Brave New World, after the emergence of the island, competing nations rushed there in search of resources. Inside the island they discovered adamantium, which Ross calls “the discovery of the millennium” for its potential applications in tech, medicine, and defense. He also says it’s even more indestructible than vibranium.
The first — and, at that time, only — refined sample of adamantium had been stolen from a Japanese mining site on the island by SERPENT, a criminal organization led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). Sam Wilson/Captain America (Anthony Mackie) recovers the sample in the beginning of the movie, and that’s pretty much all that happens with the adamantium, though some speculate that it may have played a larger part in the movie in some earlier version, as that film famously went through a lot of changes.
There’s also some debate as to whether or not SERPENT, and specifically the SERPENT member Copperhead (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) used adamantium in that movie. The Marvel Wiki says that SERPENT enhanced their weapons with adamantium and that Copperhead’s blades were made of adamantium, but that’s never actually said in the film. The bullets from SERPENT’s guns just bounce off Cap’s shield, leaving it unscratched, and the same can be said for Copperhead’s blades. It’s also hard to figure out how a mere terrorist organization like SERPENT would be able to refine such a complicated element to control. There’s really nothing to support the idea that any of their weapons have any adamantium enhancement, so I’m pretty sure the Marvel Wiki is just wrong about this.
But Paladin’s bullets in VisionQuest are most definitely made from adamantium, as they’re stated to be made from the metal and they do a great deal of damage to Vision, which regular bullets cannot do to Vision’s vibranium form. So seven years after Disney bought Fox, we finally have somebody in the MCU making use of it. Sure, it may only be a second-rate (third-rate?) villain like Paladin, but hey, it’s better than nothing.