A comment about the first appearance of Vibranium sent me into a rabbit hole about fictional metals in superhero comics.
That gave me the idea to rank them! As always, to make things more fun I’ve included some truly obscure substances and ranked them based on five categories.
Since I’ve included 25 metals in this, let’s score all categories from 1 to 5.
Durability: it’s not always the main focus, but all of these are at the very least described as “stronger than steel” so I think it’s worth mentioning
Versatility: how much can a writer do with this?
Iconicity: a totally real word to describe how iconic the metal has become
Historicity: not literally, these are all fictional, but how long have they been around?
Weirdness: just how much does this stuff break the laws of physics?
Just for clarity, I am not including Kryptonite in this. It’s not usually a metal, but as probably the most famous fictional material in comics I know someone would bring it up.
Also this list is BY NO MEANS complete; I’ve included some one-off metals if they’re weird enough, and there are probably some more modern examples I didn’t include because I don’t have much to say about them.
#25: Netheranium
First appearance: Marvel Spotlight #12 (1973)
Durability: 1
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 1
Historicity: 2
Weirdness: 2
Total score: 7
This is the stuff Helstrom’s trident is made of. You would think it would rank higher considering it’s made of a metal that can weaken Satan (!!!), but it’s barely ever mentioned and there are other magic-absorbing metals in this list that are vastly more interesting and versatile.
#24: Kryptylium
First appearance: Superboy #104 (1963)
Durability: 1
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 1
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 1
Total score: 7
Not the only metal from Krypton on this list, but it’s at the bottom because it doesn’t have anything special besides being particularly magnetic. It’s only slightly above Netheranium, despite showing up only once, exclusively because it’s a decade older.
#23: Veridium
First appearance: Metal Men v2 #1 (1994)
Durability: 1
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 2
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 2
Total score: 9
There’s a reason why the Metal Men retrospective didn’t touch the 1994 relaunch… it sucked.
One of the reasons was that it didn’t just turn Doc Magnus into a robot (which would have been interesting on its own)… he used a fictional metal to do it, which goes against the essence of the Metal Men. We will see this incarnation soon in the Legion retrospective.
In addition to being stronger than steel like basically everything in this list, it also has antigravity properties. Something that you will see higher on this list.
#22: Valorium
First (as Element-152) appearance: Adventure Comics #305 (1962)
Durability: 1
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 2
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 2
Total score: 9
In fact you’re seeing it right now! This is the element the Legion Flight Ring is made of.
The name is from the Reboot incarnation, but it’s much older: the pre-Crisis rings were based on the antigravity element created by a disguised Mon-El.
#21: Dilustel
First appearance: Space Adventures v2 #33 (1960)
Durability: 3
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 1
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 1
Total score: 9
This is the metal that made up Captain Atom’s original costume, and post-Crisis it’s the thing his skin is made of. Despite this it’s low on the list because most people probably assume that’s just Captain Atom’s regular skin nowadays (and it might be, I’m not really up to date on the Captain).
#20: Carbonadium
First appearance: X-Men v2 #4 (1991)
Durability: 3
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 2
Historicity: 2
Weirdness: 2
Total score: 10
If you’re too cheap to use Adamantium, you use Secondary Adamantium.
If you’re too cheap for Secondary Adamantium and you’re suicidal, you use Carbonadium.
That’s the stuff Omega Red’s tentacles are made of, and they’re highly radioactive. Which might explain why not too many characters use the stuff.
#19: Kryptium
First appearance: Action Comics #329 (1965)
Durability: 4
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 1
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 1
Total score: 10
The OTHER metal from Krypton, this was basically their version of Adamantium.
The stuff is so tough that a sword made of Kryptium could cut pre-Crisis Superman!
But it shows off so rarely that I’m not going as far as giving it the elusive 5 points on durability.
#18: Promethium (Marvel)
First appearance: Excalibur #38
Durability: 2
Versatility: 3
Iconicity: 1
Historicity: 2
Weirdness: 3
Total score: 11
Another magic-absorbing metal. It’s useful enough for Doctor Doom to come up with an elaborate plan to get himself an armor made of Promethium… and it’s this low because he uses it SO rarely that we’re not even entirely sure we saw it again.
Promethium is actually a real element, although in reality it doesn’t absorb magic(citation needed).
That doesn’t prevent DC Comics from having their own version of promethium further down the line.
#17: Shazamium
First appearance: Captain Marvel Adventures #100 (1949)
Durability: 1
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 1
Historicity: 5
Weirdness: 3
Total score: 11
This completely bonkers story contributes no less than THREE different metals to the list!
Shazamium is the one that makes the most sense: it allows the ghost of the wizard Shazam to keep interacting with the world. Yes, that IS the least weird of the three! Nothing much of interest, but it’s one of the oldest entries in the list.
#16: Batmanium
First appearance: Batman v2 #45 (2015)
Durability: 2
Versatility: 2
Iconicity: 2
Historicity: 1
Weirdness: 5
Total score: 12
And this is the second most recent entry! Shockingly despite the name, it’s NOT from the Silver Age. It’s introduced as simply a super-heavy and super-conductive metal, and its creation has nothing to do with Batman… it’s just named in his honor.
What bumps up the weirdness is that, much later, it’s connected to the whole “dark multiverse” nonsense that made it some weird cosmic thing.
Because Batman can’t just be a guy who fights crime, he has to be the bestest at everything including having a cosmically important substance named after him.
#15: Amnesium
First appearance: Superboy #55 (1957)
Durability: 1
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 1
Historicity: 4
Weirdness: 5
Total score: 12
There are a lot of metals with weird effects on this list. A metal that gives people amnesia is not even the weirdest, but it’s up there.
And considering Superboy once used it to make Jimmy Olsen forget his secret identity, it might also cause brain damage.
That doesn’t stop Superman from using it later. Including using it to CURE amnesia.
#14: Supermanium
First appearance: World’s Finest #41 (1949)
Durability: 4
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 2
Historicity: 4
Weirdness: 1
Total score: 12
Batman eventually got Batmanium because he was jealous Superman had a metal named after him already in the 40s, isn’t it?
This isn’t the ONLY version of Supermanium, just the oldest.
#13: Eternium
First (named) appearance: Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 4 #110 (1998)
First (unnamed) appearance: Whiz Comics #2 (1940)
Durability: 2
Versatility: 3
Iconicity: 2
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 2
Total score: 12
This is a weird case. Eternium is the stuff the “Rock of Eternity” is made of, so it’s been around as long as the original Captain Marvel… but it wasn’t named until the 90s in a Legion comic.
Another magic-absorbing metal that can be considered the Kryptonite for the Marvel Family, but it’s also a discount version of Vibranium in the Black Adam movie.
#12: Marvelium
First appearance: Captain Marvel Adventures #100 (1949)
Durability: 5
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 1
Historicity:5
Weirdness: 1
Total score: 13
The second metal from this story, and the first on this list to reach a durability score of 5 considering that Golden Age Captain Marvel can’t do anything to it. And he’s just as insane as Silver Age Superman, if not even more.
#11: Promethium (DC Comics)
First appearance: New Teen Titans #9 (1981)
Durability: 3
Versatility: 3
Iconicity: 3
Historicity: 2
Weirdness: 3
Total score: 14
This is basically DC’s version of Adamantium: the super-tough metal that everyone gets. But unlike Adamantium, they never introduced a knockoff version to excuse all the times it’s broken, so the durability score isn’t that high.
But it’s definitely versatile and weird, considering this is a metal with a healing factor.
#10: Adamantine
First appearance: Journey Into Mystery Annual #1 (1963)
Durability: 4
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 2
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 4
Total score: 14
This is the metal from Greek Mythology, and for the longest time it was notable enough for Hercules’s club. But it later gained an absurd cosmic lore, in a Wolverine series of all places.
#9: Inertron
First appearance: Adventure Comics #336 (1965)
Durability: 5
Versatility: 2
Iconicity: 4
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 1
Total score: 15
I trust I don’t have to talk a lot about this one. It’s the second level 5 durability on the list, and it’s probably the most durable metal in DC Comics considering it could withstand blows from MULTIPLE pre-Crisis Superman beings.
Not a whole lot of versatility though… it’s just though. But it’s THE tough metal in my book.
#8: Amazonium
First (named) appearance: Sensation Comics #89 (1949)
First (unnamed) appearance: All-Star Comics #8 (1942)
Durability: 4
Versatility: 1
Iconicity: 4
Historicity:5
Weirdness: 1
Total score: 15
This is the stuff Wonder Woman’s bracelets are made of, even though it wouldn’t be named for a while. They lack the many powers of the post-Crisis incarnation, and I don’t think they deserve a higher durability. The Golden and Silver Age Wondy wasn’t THAT strong, and while they’re definitely more impressive in later years… when DC has to use an indestructible metal, they rarely bring up Amazonium.
#7: Adamantium
First appearance: Avengers #66 (1966)
Durability: 5
Versatility: 2
Iconicity: 5
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 1
Total score: 17
The penultimate metal with a durability score of 5, and so iconic it broke containment and is probably recognizable by non-comic book readers.
It’s helped by the fact that, in the 80s, they introduced the concept of “secondary adamantium”: whenever you see a character without cosmic or divine strength breaking the stuff, it’s retroactively the secondary and cheaper version.
#6: Mysterium
First appearance: S.W.O.R.D. v2 #1 (2020)
Durability: 4
Versatility: 4
Iconicity: 3
Historicity: 1
Weirdness: 5
Total score: 17
The most recent addition to the list. Marvel has really hyped it and put it everywhere, which makes me think we’re probably due for “secondary mysterium”.
It’s as durable as secondary adamantium and, more intriguingly, has anti-magic properties that make it magic’s Kryptonite.
They’ve been adding weird properties to it… for some reason it doesn’t even trigger Spider-Man’s spider sense… and it has a truly bonkers cosmic origin.
#5: Element-X
First appearance: New Gods #7 (1972)
Durability: 3
Versatility: 5
Iconicity: 2
Historicity: 2
Weirdness: 5
Total score: 17
Remember Batmanium? That’s connected to a weird cosmic storyline that connects fictional metals and eventually reveals that Element-X… first seen in Fourth World stuff… is actually the stuff the multiverse is made of.
Apparently EVERYTHING has a part of Element-X, the metal is just a concentrated version. And while I’m not sure it’s particularly durable, it can be shaped by thought.
I think? That whole storyline gives me a headache.
#4: Sivanium
First appearance: Captain Marvel Adventures #100 (1940)
Durability: 1
Versatility: 5
Iconicity: 1
Historicity: 5
Weirdness: 5
Total score: 17
The final metal from this story. What can I even say about a metal that takes the properties of everything you sculpt with it?
Yeah Golden Age Captain Marvel is COMPLETELY INSANE.
#3: Uru
First (named) appearance: Journey into Mystery #85 (1963)
First (unnamed) appearance: Journey into Mystery #83 (1963)
Durability: 5
Versatility: 3
Iconicity: 4
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 3
Total score: 18
The best magic-absorbing metal in this list and the last one with a durability score of 5.
It’s not named until the third Thor story (and the hammer’s material doesn’t have a name in mythology), and because it absorbs magic like a sponge it allows for the craziest stuff.
#2: Nth Metal
First appearance: Flash Comics #1 (1940)
Durability: 2
Versatility: 4
Iconicity: 4
Historicity: 5
Weirdness: 4
Total score: 19
Already introduced in the very first Hawman story, it’s THE gravity-defying metal.
And depending on the incarnation it also has the magic-disrupting theme.
#1: Vibranium
First (named) appearance: Fantastic Four #53 (1966)
First (unnamed) appearance: Daredevil #13 (1965)
Durability: 3
Versatility: 5
Iconicity: 5
Historicity: 3
Weirdness: 4
Total score: 20
While the Wakanda version is by far the most popular, a couple of years earlier an unstable version was introduced on Daredevil before Vibranium was even named!
It’s called Antarctic Vibranium nowadays, and it’s as dangerous and versatile as the main one.
That’s what puts it on the top: there are multiple forms and countless applications of vibranium, and thanks to the movies it’s also probably known outside of comics just as well.
Did I forget a metal worth mentioning?