Editor’s Note

Metal God

What is adamantium, anyway?

Is it a real thing? A metal? An element? Does it show up on the periodic table — perhaps as Ac? That “c” would, of course, be for claws, because adamantium is one of those words that seems incomplete unless followed by that other word. Like  “eked” without “out” or “feng” without “shui.”

Anyone familiar with the X-Men knows those adamantium claws belong to the combustible mutant Wolverine, having been attached to his knuckles, just as adamantium was bonded to the rest of his skeleton, as part of the Weapon X project.

But is adamantium real? Um, no. Not in the real-world sense anyway. There is no adamantium in your fillings, and you don’t have to worry about traces of adamantium in your drinking water. However, in pop culture — even beyond the comic-book realm — adamantium is very real.

According to Wikipedia, adamantium is a metallic or crystalline substance that not only appears in X-Men comic books, but throughout the Marvel Universe as a concoction of different resins (the exact formula is top-secret) that when mixed together form a substance so durable that in large enough quantities it can survive nuclear explosions and solar flares. There are even subsets of adamantium — true adamantium, secondary adamantium and adamantium beta, each with its own properties.

Adamantium also pops up in videogames that aren’t even based on comic books — Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Playstation 2’s Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal — and in the Dungeons & Dragons board game. On the big screen, the first reference to adamantium actually predates Marvel Comics’ use of the stuff — arriving in the 1956 sci-fi Forbidden Planet when Walter Pidgeon’s Dr. Morbius refers to “adamantium steel.” The fictitious substance also made its way into 1998’s Lost in Space, which featured organisms with an “adamantium shell,” and, not so surprisingly, last year’s Marvel-produced Iron Man, where adamantium was used to make a bullet.

You need to know all of this going into X-Men Origins: Wolverine because much of the movie revolves around adamantium, or at least Wolverine’s decision to allow an adamantium framework to be implanted into his already superhuman body (he was born with an unnatural ability to heal really, really fast). Now that you’re up to speed on adamantium, read “Wolfman Jack,” our interview with Hugh Jackman, whose portrayal of Wolverine has imbued the actor with incredible strength and power — in Hollywood, anyway.

Then there's “Back to School,” our interview with Zac Efron about his own supernatural ability in 17 Again — his character devolves from a 37-year-old man to a 17-year-old high school student.

In “Toe to Toe With Terrence Howard” the brash actor talks up his latest urban drama, Fighting, even comparing it to Fight Club and the 1969 multiple-Oscar-winner Midnight Cowboy.

And read “What a Crime” to find out why Rachel McAdams and Viola Davis were so eager to take part in State of Play, an adaptation of a BBC miniseries.

Marni Weisz, editor