Today we’re trying to figure out if Hercules’ adamantine mace can break Captain America’s shield.
In Comic Book Questions Answered, I answer any comic book questions you might have (feel free to email me questions at brianc@cbr.com).
Longtime reader Hunter S. always has interesting questions (and often related to adamantium or vibranium), so let’s see what Hunter is asking this time:
As you can probably tell by now [I can! And I love it! – BC], I’m a huge Captain America fan. I know his shield has withstood the adamantium claws of Thor’s Uru hammer Wolverine and even the nova flame of the Human Torch a lot. What I’d like to know is, could the Proto-Adamantium Disk withstand the adamantine gold mass of Hercules?
Fascinating stuff, Hunter. This one, however, I think I can answer RELATIVELY simply, based solely on old comic book reveal questions I’ve done on similar topics, but let’s see!
HOW DID THE MASS OF HERCULES INFLUENCE THE CREATION OF ADAMANTIUM?
Roy Thomas had Hercules in mind specifically when he introduced adamantium in 1969 avengers #66 (by Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith and Syd Shores). The history of unbreakable metals having “Adamant” in their name is very long, as other science fiction writers have often followed the same influence as Thomas. You see, in the early Greek myths, the myths depicted Hercules as wielding an adamantine club. It was in this spirit that Thomas came up with the newest unbreakable metal in the comics, adamantium, and yes, the metal’s creator specifically cited Hercules as an influence later in the comics.
Hercules isn’t exactly a slacker in the Marvel Universe (and recently made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder), but he’s obviously not the most popular character either. in sight, while Captain America had many opportunities to have his shield tested (such as with Thor’s mighty hammer, Mjolnir), the adamantine mace of Hercules did NOT have the same opportunities, but therefore, to our knowledge, it is in fact unbreakable.
Which of course means…
AS WE KNOW, HERCULES’ ADAMANTINE MACE IS STRONGER THAN CAPTAIN AMERICA’S SHIELD
So here’s what we really know, based on what we’ve seen in the actual comics. Thor’s hammer was, in fact, able to dent adamantium in avengers #66.
And it was obviously “primary” adamantium (a later retcon introduced by Kurt Busiek to explain why some writers over the years have described adamantium as less potent than normal, with Blastaar, of all people, ripping adamantium as if it were aluminum), so we know that Thor’s hammer can at least theoretically smash adamantium given enough time and force.
The question of “strength” is fascinating, and it came up when I was asked if Wolverine’s claws could pierce Silver Surfer’s metal skin, which is just because something theoretically COULD cut through something else , you should be able to exert enough force to make the first object break the other thing. In this Wolverine vs. Silver Surfer example, does Wolverine have enough strength to sink his claws into something really strong? The answer should probably be “no”, because while Wolverine certainly has super strength (just being able to carry all that adamantium metal is an achievement), it’s low-level super strength. So while, say, Thor would be able to plunge an adamantium blade past someone like the Silver Surfer, Wolverine might not be able to. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case in the actual comics, as Wolverine regularly digs his claws into things you wouldn’t think he was strong enough to get through.
That’s not really the issue here, though, because Hercules IS pretty strong, but it’s an issue you have to consider with the idea of ”could object X break object Y?” Strength must count. One time strength really mattered was when Thor struck Cap’s shield with all of Odin’s strength (Thor was the All-Father at that time, so he had the same power as Odin)…
It was enough to send Cap flying and even dent the shield. The significant part of this interaction is that Thor’s hammer dented Captain America’s shield. So we also know that Thor’s hammer and Hercules’ adamantine mace of gold are tied, as we saw in Thor #126 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Vince Colletta), where Thor and Hercules smack each other as hard as they can and nothing happens to them either…
At this point, we already knew that Thor’s hammer wasn’t unbreakable either, as in Journey into mystery #118 (by Kirby, Lee, and Colletta), the Destroyer cut Thor’s hammer in half.
We’ve seen Thor’s hammer shatter a few more times since then, including in a battle against his own ancestor, Bor, in Thor #600 (by J. Michael Straczysnki, Olivier Coipel, Marko Djurdjevic, Laura Martin and Paul Mounts).
So yeah, clearly Hercules is taking advantage of the fact that his golden mace hasn’t been used as much in the comics, so there’s less chance of showing it breaking, but at the same time , it’s not like it has NEVER been used , and the fact is that when it has been used it has never been broken including What if…? comics, while Thor’s hammer is powerful enough to shatter adamantium and dent Captain America’s shield. I think it’s pretty fair to say that as far as we know Hercules’ golden mace is stronger than Captain America’s shield, even though that seems horribly wrong, and that obviously could be negated by a story showing that Hercules is UNABLE to do so. whenever someone feels like writing it down (plus Hercules would have to hit the shield for a LONG TIME to finally break it, I’m not saying he could do that at all, in one hit).
Thanks to Hunter for the question! If anyone else has a question about the comic, email me at brianc@cbr.com!
