One of the coolest aspects of the upcoming Black Panther film is the costume the title hero wears. The costume is made out of a special ore that is found pretty much only in Black Panther's home country of Wakanda (it comes from a meteor that landed there in the distant past). Called Vibranium, it gets its name because it literally absorbs any vibratory or kinetic energy into itself. This is what allows Black Panther to do so many of the amazing stunts that we saw in Captain America: Civil War and in the trailers for Black Panther.

The Vibranium mesh that makes up his costume absorbs all of the impact, which allows him to be, in effect, bulletproof and able to fall from great heights without injuring himself. So Vibranium is an amazing metal. The question, though, is just how amazing is Vibranium? How does it compare against the other most famous metal in the Marvel Universe -- Adamantium?

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First off, it should be noted that when we talk about Vibranium, there are confusingly two different types of Vibranium, which have distinctly different attributes. This is mostly chalked up to the fact that Stan Lee liked to use certain words over and over again, so that you would have something like Doctor Strange invoke "Dormammu" when he needs help in a spell but then have Dormammu show up as a villain later on.

So in Daredevil #13, we saw the first metal referred to as Vibranium, which was found in the Savage Land...

This metal specifically vibrated and caused metal to destroy itself. This Vibranium appeared only in the Savage Land. Then, a year later, in Fantastic Four #53, we met the Wakanda variety...

Nowadays, the Wakanda version is known as "Vibranium," while the Savage Land version is referred to as "Anti-Metal."

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Adamantium, meanwhile, was introduced in Avengers #66...

Adamantium, generally speaking, is THE most durable metal in the Marvel Universe. Even more durable than Vibranium. This can be considered confusing for a number of reasons, most of all is the fact that Captain America's shield is made out of a Vibranium-steel alloy (as shown in Captain America #303)...

So what's the deal? How can Captain America's shield be made out of Vibranium and have it NOT be the strongest metal in the Marvel Universe? After all, isn't Captain America's shield the most indestructible weapon in the Marvel Universe? Well, you probably would not find it surprising to learn that the history of Captain America's shield, and Adamantium in general, is very confusing.

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First off, when Captain America's shield was first introduced, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon did not consider it indestructible at all. It was just a cool shield. Indeed, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought Captain America back into the Marvel Universe in 1964, they specifically depicted the shield as very much breakable. At one point, they even referred to it as being made out of steel (that seems to just be a mistake, though).

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In those early years, Cap's shield was strong, but not that strong. It was destroyed in Avengers #35...

and it was dented pretty easily in Avengers #44...

It was not until 1967's Tales of Suspense #93 that Kirby and Lee decided that Captain America's shield was indestructible...

(Therefore, a subtle retcon has been established that, oh yeah, those other shields were just fill-ins. Especially the one that was flat out destroyed).

This has caused a problem, though, because Captain America's shield obviously predates the creation of Adamantium, which wasn't until Avengers #66. So what's the deal?

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The deal is that basically something inexplicable happened when the government was mixing Vibranium and steel together and somehow they created a brand-new substance. In the years since, we have come to refer to this substance (which became Captain America's shield) as Proto-Adamantium. It is called this because even though it is technically not Adamantium, it's similar enough that it inspired the creation of actual Adamantium. It is the strongest metal. That is why you will sometimes see Cap's shield referred to as being a Vibranium/Adamantium mix. It is not, but it is close enough to one.

Then there is Adamantium, which was created after the Cap shield experiment could not be exactly replicated. Amusingly enough, there is even some confusion there because a Japanese scientist known as Lord Dark Wind had come up with a way to bond Adamantium to bone (which would later be used on Wolverine) back in World War II, which wouldn't really make sense if Adamantium wasn't invented until Avengers #66. So perhaps Professor Machlan stole the idea from Dark Wind? It's a bit unclear.

In any event, outside of Cap's shield, Adamantium is the strongest metal in the Marvel Universe, but there is not a whole lot of it out there. So instead, what we refer to as "True" Adamantium very rarely shows up. What we see, instead, is Secondary Adamantium. This is a slightly less durable version of Adamantium. This was created to explain some otherwise inexplicable stories where people were able to destroy Adamantium pretty easily after Marvel had established just how strong it was (for instance, Blastaar, the Fantastic Four villain, easily destroyed a factory made out of Adamantium and then the Hulk wrapped Blastaar up into an Adamantium wall. That would make no sense, so it has been retroactively decided that that must have been secondary Adamantium).

As we noted before, there is a process that bonds Adamantium to bone, but we have discovered that this process creates a new form of Adamantium, called Beta Adamantium. So Wolverine's Adamantium is not quite as powerful as True Adamantium.

Vibranium is therefore somewhere around the level of secondary Adamantium. Probably a bit less durable than even secondary Adamantium, but it is still a remarkable metal in the Marvel Universe. It just can't hold up to Wolverine's claws or Captain America's shield (by the way, the Vibranium in Captain America's shield is also the explanation for how the shield can bounce so well and then be caught by Cap, as the shield absorbs kinetic energy along the way, allowing it to return to Cap without as much force).