Comic Book Questions Answered - where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com). Here is a link to an archive of all the past questions that have been answered so far.

Reader Steve S. wrote in to ask:

Ran across this last night and was wondering if it has ever been addressed. In Captain America #303 Cap's shield has been stolen and a scientist at Stane International is trying to recreate the formula for the metal. The scientist says that the closest he's come has been a substance called adamantium but that's still not as strong as Cap's shield. This is the first time I've ever seen this mentioned and to my knowledge adamantium has always been regarded as the strongest metal ever in the Marvel Universe.

Read on for the answer!

I sort of went into this same topic a while back when someone asked what Captain America's shield was made out of, exactly, as it once was referred to as a mixture of adamantium and vibranium. However, Kurt Busiek answered the questions people had in Avengers Annual 2001...

So you see, adamantium was designed to match the metal that was Captain America's shield - it came close, but the mysterious alloy that makes up Captain America's shield is still the tops in the Marvel Universe. Not even enchanted uru (which is enough to dent adamantium...

)

can dent Captain America's shield (although someone as powerful as Odin CAN break it, as seen in Fear Itself, when Odin's predecessor as All-Father, the Serpent, breaks Cap's shield).

So Captain America's shield seems like it's numero uno at Marvel (and of course, even then, it has been destroyed on numerous occasions).

Thanks for the question, Steve! If anyone else has a question, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com