In episode 2 of VisionQuest, Paladin uses adamantium bullets to damage Vision’s vibranium form in a way regular bullets can’t. Paladin, played by Todd Stashwick, targets Vision, also called White Vision – though that name comes with some hesitation in the episode’s coverage. It’s the first clear use of adamantium in the MCU’s main timeline.
Episode 2 debuted on Disney Plus on Oct. 13, alongside episode 1. Spoilers for episode 2 follow.
The scene fills a gap that’s lingered since Disney bought Fox in 2019, gaining the ability to use adamantium in its stories. The metal is closely tied to Fox’s X-Men films, but its comic-book history goes back further than Wolverine.
Adamantium is best known as the metal coating Wolverine’s skeleton. His claws first appeared in The Incredible Hulk issue 181 in 1974, when he fought the Hulk. At the time, the claws were attached to his gloves, not part of his body, though he described them as made from “diamond-hard adamantium.”
In 1975, Wolverine went from one-off Hulk villain to member of the new X-Men lineup. The comics then established that adamantium coated his skeleton, with claws housed in his forearms that pierced his skin when extended. Because the metal was tied up with Fox, it remained off-limits to Marvel Studios’ films until 2019.
Adamantium had appeared in Marvel Comics before Wolverine’s debut. It was first mentioned in Avengers issue 66, published in July 1969, as the material forming Ultron’s outer shell. Roy Thomas wrote the issue, and Barry Windsor-Smith and Syd Shores drew it; they created the metal. That history makes adamantium’s use against Vision a neat fit: in the MCU, Vision was originally intended to be Ultron’s final form. Both characters are made of vibranium in the films.
VisionQuest isn’t the first MCU production to mention or show adamantium. The metal appears throughout Deadpool & Wolverine, since Wolverine’s claws are made of it. But little of the film takes place in the “sacred timeline” of Universe 616, and only Deadpool, not Wolverine, travels there.
Adamantium reached the main timeline earlier in Captain America: Brave New World. President Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford, explains that it’s a newly discovered metal found on Celestial Island. The name is misleading: the “island” is the corpse of Tiamut the Communicator, a Celestial whose emergence from Earth was stopped in Eternals. Sersi, played by Gemma Chan, turned Tiamut to stone, saving the planet. Since then, his remains have formed an island in the Indian Ocean.
Ross says rival nations rushed to the site after Tiamut emerged, searching for resources. He calls adamantium “the discovery of the millennium” because of its potential uses in technology, medicine, and defense. He also says it’s even more indestructible than vibranium.
In the film, SERPENT had stolen the first refined sample – the only one at the time – from a Japanese mining site on the island. The criminal organization is led by Sidewinder, played by Giancarlo Esposito. Sam Wilson/Captain America, played by Anthony Mackie, recovers the sample near the beginning of the movie. That’s almost all the film does with adamantium.
Some viewers have argued that SERPENT used adamantium in its weapons, including the blades wielded by Copperhead, played by Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson. The Marvel Wiki makes that claim, but the film never says the weapons contain the metal. SERPENT’s bullets bounce off Captain America’s shield without scratching it, as do Copperhead’s blades. The article’s author also questions how a criminal group could refine such a complicated material and concludes there’s no evidence that any of SERPENT’s weapons were enhanced with adamantium.
That leaves Paladin’s ammunition as the first unambiguous use of adamantium by someone in the MCU’s main timeline. The episode explicitly identifies the bullets as adamantium, and they badly damage Vision where ordinary bullets can’t. Seven years after Disney bought Fox, the metal has moved from a discovery and a stolen sample to a weapon that changes a fight.
