After Marvel unveiled the cracked Captain America Shield Yesterday at this years Comic Con, we decided to list all the times Cap’s shield has been dented, cracked or even broken. The question remains: Who Can Break Captain America’s Shield? Unfortunately as indestructible as the shield may seem, there’s been a few super strong villains that manage to break Captain America’s Shield.
Also See:
- Marvel Announce 9 new movies for phase 3 including Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Avengers Infinity War Part 1 and 2
- Thanos is the crown jewel in Marvel Phase 3
- Marvel Movies Heading Our Way from 2017 to 2019
* Update: After the official release of the trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron we can with certainty say that Cap’s shield will get broken by Ultron. Check-out the amazing action packed trailer here.
1. Who Made Captain America’s shield?
If we go on the movies then the sure answer would be Tony Stark. As much as we love Iron-Man, he can’t fully take the credit for creating Cap’s shield.
Originally, Dr. Myron MacLain created the alloy that the shield is made of. He used an indestructible alloy called Vibranium metal together with an unknown substance. As a result of his exhaustion, an unknown factor caused the metals he was working with to bond.
The alloy was poured into the shape of a discus. It was painted in its familiar red-white-and-blue pattern using titanium oxide paint. Later, the shield was presented to Captain America by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man later made several electronic and magnetic improvements upon the shield, which allowed Rogers to control the discus in flight.
2. What is Captain America’s Shield made of?
Scene from the official Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer
Cap’s shield has been composed of many different things over the years, but eventually they seemed to settle on Vibranium, an alien material which came to Earth in a meteorite and crashed in Wakanda, where they guard it very carefully. Steve’s shield was forged from Vibranium which, depending on canon, was either stolen from Wakanda or given to Roosevelt as a goodwill gift by the king. It is virtually indestructible.
3. Who dent, broke or cracked Captain America’s shield?
Thor – The shield was once slightly dented by an enraged Odinforce empowered Thor, using Mjolnir, but he later reconciled and pounded out the small dent.
Doctor Doom – During the Super-Heroes Secret Wars, the shield was destroyed by Doctor Doom, who had assumed the Beyonder’s godlike powers. The Beyonder soon recovered his powers and, as a side effect, released a wave of energy that produced a “wish effect”. That is, each person on Battleworld was able to harness a portion the Beyonder’s infinite power to realize some wish. Cap’s wish was to have his shield whole.
Vibranium Cancer – Stark and Rogers once discovered a small sub-molecular imperfection in the shield (how they came to know this is a long story). With every blow the shield took, the Vibranium within absorbed more energy and the flaw propagated to other molecules, until the shield’s bond were completely and spontaneously broken down.
Worse still, the energies released by the Vibranium created a shock-wave that spread like a “Vibranium cancer”, violently destroying any Vibranium it encountered. Rogers travelled to Great Vibranium Mound in Wakanda with the pieces of the shield taped together, hoping he could save the world by using the remaining Vibranium within the shield to absorb the shock-wave. In doing so he was prepared to sacrifice what remained of the shield. However, the shock-wave was first intercepted by the Klaw, who absorbed it into his own body of living sound energy. Klaw soon attacked Rogers with his augmented powers. When Cap reflexively raised his shattered shield in defense, the shards absorbed the energy and the ultra-powerful harmonics restored the Vibranium nanostructure.
Thanos – Thanos of Titan later shattered the shield with a single blow, by using the power of the Infinity Gauntlet, but the shield was restored when Nebula obtained the Gauntlet and undid most of Thanos’ villainy.
Molecule man – In The Avengers #215–216, the Molecule Man used his total control over matter to disintegrate the shield, along with Thor’s hammer, Iron Man’s armor, and the Silver Surfer’s board. After he does so, he comments that the board’s molecules are “weird”, and while there are “odd forces interweaving” among the hammer’s molecules, the shield is “weirdest of all”. He later reassembles these items, with the exception of the armor, as the electronic circuits are too complicated for him to understand.
The Serpent – The Serpent is the Asgardian god of fear and brother to Odin. He breaks it in half with his bare hands. After the battle, the shield is repaired by Asgardian dwarves with added Asgardian uru-infused enhancements to make it stronger, though a noticeable scar on the surface is visible, which Captain America elects to keep to give character to the shield.
[Source: Who Can Break Captain America’s Shield]
UMMM…TONY STARK DID NOT MAKE CAP’S SHIELD IN THE MOVIES…MAYBE THE FIRST CAP MOVIE IMPLIES TONY’S FATHER MAYBE HELPED MAKE IT..BUT THEY DON’T SAY ANYTHING SPECIFICALLY
True, considering in the films, Tony Stark wasn’t even born when Cap got his shield in the 1940’s.
Agreed. But what was tony’s role with the shield in the movies then? Remember seeing the shield lying in the background in Iron Man 1 was it?
Tony was probably given it by his father, Howard Stark. It could be another model or something.
I doubt it was the actual shield. Maybe a prototype or something? If you remember, it wasn’t even the full shield.
actually the vibranium cancer is pretty simple. It goes back to the secret wars where the Shield was shattered by Dr Doom with the Beyonder’s power. Captain America reformed it using his own will power in the after effects of Doom’s defeat. It is then that the flaws appeared within the shield.
if Ultron breaks the shield he’ll probably use something similar to Molecule man. Ultron can reconfigure the adamantium in his own body so likely uses a similar method to alter the shield and thus break it.
there is no adamantium in the MCU anymore, they sold the rights to fox when they were bankrupt, so everything that adamantium is now vibranium, Ultron will be made of that instead.
Will believe it when i See it. Marvel Still has Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch and to be honest they have an even better claim on Adamantium than they did those two.
The first time Adamantium was used was with Ultron.. not Wolverine. Ultron’s body thereafter has always been some type of blend of Adamantium mostly primary but some secondary as seen in the Secret Wars. The first time Adamantium was tested for hardness was when Thor hit it with his hammer made of Uru and couldn’t even make a mark on it much less dent it.
plus Vibranium would be a rather odd thing to make Ultron from. It absorbs kinetic energy and sound.. you want a mute ultron? o.O
Furthermore there is another bit of information. Marvel isn’t the only place that you see Adamantium. Other movies and stories use it freely. so I doubt Disney’s lawyers will have a problem defending against that joke of a lawsuit if Sony attempts to press. Sony certainly hasn’t attempted to sue any of the other sources that used Adamantium.
Isn’t it Fox that owns Adamantium? Unless Marvel has a trademark on Adamantium, which has been licensed to Fox (or anybody else) then ANYONE can use it, including Marvel.
The point of Cap’s shield is that it’s an Adamantium / Vibranium ALLOY, not just one or the other, which makes it a unique accident in all the universe (and remember, even more interesting to the Molecule Man than Thor’s hammer, or Silver Surfer’s shield).
An otherwise mortal man without SUPERNATURAL durability, but having ethics and a character that is EXCEPTIONAL among all human beings, plus having the shield that is EXCEPTIONAL in the entire Universe, that’s a superhero. Making that Exceptional object less exceptional makes the HERO less exceptional.
Adamantum isn’t unique to marvel it was in a movie long before Ultron even existed.
In the Marvel universe Adamantium first appeared in an Avengers comic. Ultron 5 i think rebuilt his body with Primary Adamantium that Thor found he couldn’t dent even with Uru Metal (what Mjolnir is made from). This was about 3 or so years before Wolverine even existed.
Cap’s shield having Adamantium was a misprint. The mainstream Shield does not have Adamantium in it.. it was Vibranium with other metals steel i think until it was rebuilt with Uru metal after Fear itself.
The only shield which had Adamantium in it was the Ultimates Cap’s shield. But that shield didn’t have any vibranium in it just primary Adamantium.
Adamantium has also shown up in various media from games to movies all without Fox sueing them.. or even marvel sueing them for that matter. In the movie Forbidden Planet Adamantium was a metal that was used in the buildings.. it was called adamantium steel in the film and this was in 1956.
so it’s not like either Fox or Marvel own it or should.
Ultron breaks it in age of ultron the comics
Hulk broke through an adamantium net thrown by Dracula
Thanos can break his shield
Whenever we get MCU vs.Thanos, we need the scene of Cap being the last man to stand up to him, and then Thanos gives him a bitch slap.
Yup, could not agree more! That… would…be…awesome!
And it happened. You called it 6 years before
loki with odin force did it.
Yup, but using Odin force is like cheating. Which is typical Loki.
iunno about cheating…
Breaking Captain America’s shield to make a point about how big a threat the antagonist is, is simply weak storytelling. The Molecule Man or Thanos breaking the shield with the Infinity Gauntlet or the Beyonder doing it make sense, but succumbing to ‘mere’ magical or physical attacks is… weak.
This is VERY important. Maybe more than you know. Well said!
Yeah… frankly, Marvel Comics Inc. needs a list of things that you NEVER do in Marvel Comics without 100% buy in from the editorial team… like kill off Aunt May or other key supporting characters… or break Cap’s shield… or divorce Sue and Reed… you know, stuff that is foundational to the universe shouldn’t be tampered with, unless there’s a REALLY REALLY GOOD…. oh, I just reread that and realize how unlikely and stupid it is. They’ve taken beloved comic book stories and shat on them so often it doesn’t matter what they do now.
I think It’s Unlikely that Ultron breaks the shield & FAR more likely that the image is part of one of the “visions” the Scarlet Witch causes them to see & that vision would be of the future & the Infinity War
Perhaps that’s true… but ironically the Scarlett Witch is someone who I believe COULD break the shield: mere strength can’t do it.
Yknow–thats a darn good point. I hadnt really thought about that since we dont know the exact nature of her powers, but do know that she shows them all visions at some point that messes with their heads, so I was thinking…ahhh…future vision of the Infinity War. I guess we’ll find out next year
umm, study prepositions much?
The shield is just another plot device they use to sell how badass a villain is. Every time it breaks it’s for dramatic effect.