What Metal is Captain America’s Shield Actually Made Out Of?

Captain America’s shield is made out of vibranium, no adamantium, no steel, wait no, what is Captain America’s shield made of? The convoluted history of the spangled shield can lead to many answers depending on what time period, universe and story medium Captain America finds himself in.

Captain America’s iconic shield has gone through countless iterations and nearly as many materials that go into the disc-shaped weapon. So giving a definitive answer to what the red, white and blue shield is made of can be tricky. The Marvel Cinematic Universe gives a straightforward answer: the shield is made of the found-on-earth metal vibranium. The vibration-absorbing metal is found in abundance in the fictional African nation of Wakanda. But in the comics, Cap’s shield has had many different compositions.

Captain America’s Original Metal Shield

Unlike the iconic disc-shield Captain America wields currently, the star-spangled-crusader’s original shield was shaped more like a medieval knight’s “heater shield.” He wielded this steel shield in his debut, Captain America Comic #1, but it was gone by the next issue. The reason the shield was retired had more to do with legal threats against what would become Marvel Comics. Rival comic book company MLJ claimed the shield too closely resembled a shield wielded by one of its own heroes and threatened a copyright lawsuit. Thus, the disc shield was introduced. But the metal composing the shield wasn’t revealed until much later on. It was hinted at as a “metallurgical accident” that yielded a nearly indestructible metal alloy. It wasn’t revealed just what this alloy was until Captain America #303, in which Dr. Myron Maclain explains he was experimenting with bonding steel to vibranium, fell asleep and the metals somehow conjoined, accidentally creating adamantium.

The key difference between the metals is that though adamantium was originally made from a steel alloy bonding with vibranium, adamantium is far more dense than vibranium. Also this “proto-adamantium” made by accident has never been replicated. The adamantium found in Wolverine’s skeleton is the result of further experiments that got as close to the molecular structure of Captain America’s shield as scientists could manage. Due to its density, adamantium can be used to cut and bash more effectively, but retains the durability of its vibranium base. Vibranium, on the other hand, absorbs all kinetic energy and is far lighter. Though its origins have never been elaborated on, vibranium is a meteoric metal that likely has extraterrestrial origins, while adamantium iwas created by happenstance, a parallel to the same sort of mishap that led to the super soldier serum that created Captain America.

Captain America’s Shield in Modern Marvel Comics

Cap has wielded all types of shields, and has had more than a few shattered, but his preferred arm accessory is  the adamantium disc. It’s been Captain America’s go-to when he needs to discus throw his shield at a baddie, or guard an innocent against attack. Though in the early days of the Avengers, Tony Stark was very curious about the shield and experimented on it while Cap used various steel shields that sustained all sorts of damage and were broken in multiple issues, which was more of a retcon explanation to the faulty durability of Cap’s shields up to that point.

For a time he used a pure vibranium shield, but Thanos smashed that to bits while wearing the infinity gauntlet. Captain America’s shield was broken, fixed, smashed and fixed again multiple times. When he couldn’t use his original shield due to the damage it had sustained, Cap tried shields of all types. He tried on an Asgardian-made shield composed of the metal uru forged by the dwarves of Nidavellier. Cap has also used an energy shield that simulated vibranium and had the ability to change shape. He used an osmium shield similar to that of Colossus’ skin, a Skrull-designed shield in a gladiatorial ring in an alternate universe where the Skrulls defeated humanity, a pure adamantium shield that had a polished silver look, a buzzsaw-looking shield used in an alternate universe where Dormammu took over, as well as several hybrid shields that have a metal interior and an energy outline.

Recently Captain America was rewritten as an agent of Hydra and used a triangular shaped shield with energy properties and faced off against The Falcon, who took on the mantle after Steve Rogers passed on the disc shield to his longtime ally. That storyline wrapped up and Cap is back to his normal heroics, typically as an Avenger. His shield seems to be back to the adamantium disc design, though the composition of his shield hasn’t recently come up much.

Captain America’s MCU Shield Confused The Issue Forever

Ok, so adamantium is out and Cap’s shield is made of pure vibranium in the movies. It has the capability to block a blow from Thor’s hammer, soften a landing if he takes a long fall, boomerang back to Cap’s arm with physics-defying ease and bash people through windows and walls with one good swing.

But instead of being a one-of-a-kind alloy of vibranium and steel, Cap’s shield in the MCU is pure vibranium. While he’s not likely to tussle with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and see if adamantium can slice through vibranium, since the movies exist in different film universes, we’ll likely never know if the movie versions of adamantium or vibranium are stronger, at least not until Marvel folds the X-Men into the MCU. Confusingly, Cap’s MCU shield shares none of the qualities of Black Panther’s vibranium suit, which can absorb kinetic energy and redistribute it in an attack. Cap’s shield just takes blows and sometimes lets out a bell-like gong sound. As described above, vibranium absorbs any blow. But somehow Captain America’s shield can bounce off objects and return to him. The physics of which is absurd, which Spider-Man points out in Captain America: Civil War, making it a punchline in the movies and never really explained.

So, Cap’s shield has a variety of iterations but the O.G. is a “proto-adamantium” that gives it the nigh-indestructible properties and completely original metal. But the MCU threw all that old comic canon out in favor of highlighting the shield metal’s origin as Wakandan vibranium. Why change the origins? Maybe to prop up the technological superiority of the Wakandans in the MCU. But the comics more reliably use the vibranium-steel alloy and often revert to that construction when the canon gets too messy across the multiverse. Captain America seems to prefer the disc shape as it’s easier to direct a throw and the design has become synonymous with the character, despite some variants in different universes and special issues.

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