Today we take a look at whether Captain America’s shield can withstand an attack from Wonder Woman’s atomic splice sword.
In Comic Book Questions Answered, I answer any questions you might have about comics (feel free to email me questions at brianc@cbr.com).
Hunter S. regularly sends out interesting questions that typically relate to the strongest metals in the Marvel and DC Universes. This is the one he sent some time ago and which concerns BOTH universes. He asked, “Can Wonder Woman’s sword pass through Captain America’s shield?” Wonder Woman’s sword is said to be so sharp that it can slice an electron from an atom. Did Steve Rogers’ virtually indestructible shield withstand something like this?
We’ll take a look!
WONDER WOMAN’S SWORD DID AMAZING THINGS
One of The Future World’s most compelling character conflicts in Alex Ross and Mark Waid’s epic miniseries, kingdom come, was between Wonder Woman and Superman. Superman had been in exile for years after audiences kissed the violent vigilante, Magog, who murdered the Joker after the villain killed Daily Planet staff including Lois Lane. Superman could resist the death of his beloved Lois, he just couldn’t cope with a society embracing Magog. Wonder Woman convinced him to come out of retirement, but he eventually learned that his view of the world was influenced by the fact that the increase in violence in the world had led Wonder Woman to be exiled by her Amazonian sisters for having “failed” in it. mission to bring peace to the world of men. Wonder Woman has repeatedly taken more aggressive reactions to conflict than Superman, as seen in the penultimate issue of the series …
When the superhero prison built by the returning superheroes sparked an uprising, Wonder Woman pulled out her most powerful weapons, including now famous armor, but she also made her debut with a sword capable of slicing. atoms. It’s so strong that Superman even cut himself on it!
The idea of an “atom-dividing” sword is a little curious, given that there are constantly atoms around us, so if it started swinging the sword in the air, would it start to swing? slice up the atoms in the air around it?
Years later, in Superman / Wonder Woman # 6 (by Charles Soule, Tony Daniel, Matt Banning, Sandu Florea and Tomeu Morey) we learned that Wonder Woman basically needs to SEE atoms to cut them with the sword and she cannot see atoms. However, her then-boyfriend, Superman, COULD, and after being beaten up by bad guys, Superman convinces her that their only way out of captivity is to cut an atom in half and cause an atomic explosion. He would guide the sword with his special vision. She agreed to do it …
and, well, the results were explosive (pun intended of course) …
Okay, so it’s a mighty sword, isn’t it? But is he powerful enough to pierce Captain America’s shield?
CAN WONDER WOMAN’S SWORD PASS THROUGH CAPTAIN AMERICA’S SHIELD?
Whenever I talk about Captain America’s shield, I can’t help but think of the song “Frosty the Snowman”, especially the part where the kids put a hat on their snowman, Frosty, and the song notes “There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found, because when they put it on his head, he started dancing around.” I mention this because it’s really kind of the answer to how Captain America’s shield was formed, right? A scientist was trying to bond vibranium and a steel alloy and overnight there must have been some magic in that old molten metal vat as it formed to create Captain America’s shield and she seems to have almost magical properties.
Because of this, sometimes it’s even hard to think about the logistics of the shield, as it’s mostly about magic. However, there are SOME things we can actually answer based on examples in the comics (which give us SOME guidelines), but it gets more difficult when you talk about different comic book universes like this.
Fortunately, however, there is actually a perfect counterpart to Wonder Woman’s Special Sword in the Marvel Universe.
During the Infinite crossover, Jonathan Hickman, Jimmy Cheung, Mark Morales and Justin Ponsor introduced Thanos’ senior lieutenant Corvus Glaive, who rightly had an incredible sword (a sword is essentially a pole with a blade at the end) that he used to cut off the arm to the protective superhero of an alien world …
In the last issue of the main Infinite mini-series (by Hickman, Chueng, Morales, Ponsor, and around seventeen other Inker), we learn the limits of Corvus Glavie’s sword when sent to kill the Hulk and he notes that he should be able to slice the Hulk skin because his sword can slice through atoms, just like Wonder Woman’s sword!
Luckily for the Hulk, the other Avengers show up at just the right time to save the Jade Giant and the heroes collide with Thanos’ minions, the Black Order, and of course, Corvus Glaive is shown using his sword on the Captain America’s shield and guess what, it had no effect!
So I think that’s a fair enough comparison to suggest that Captain America’s shield works in a way that prevents the atomic structure of the shield from being disrupted by an attack from even a magical weapon like Wonder Woman’s. . Or not, as there obviously doesn’t seem to be any plans for an Avengers / Justice League crossover anytime soon, so I guess we’ll never know with absolute certainty, but I’m pretty confident that answer is the correct one.
Thanks for the question, Hunter! Let them come! If anyone else has a question about the comic, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!
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