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.

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* 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?

Franklin_Roosevelt_(Earth-616)_002If 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

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.

thor dent captain america shield

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.

captain vinranium cancer

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.

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Molecule man – In The Avengers #215–216the 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.

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[Source: Who Can Break Captain America’s Shield]