The various narratives and alleyways of pop culture are chockful of imaginary sustances and the occasional made-up element: Unbreakable Adamantium, energy-absorbing Vibranium, the radioactive rainbow that is the various forms of Kryptonite. Spock’s Red Matter is mostly responsible for the creation of the alternate timeline of the new Star Trek series, while the miners who provide Cohaagen with turbinium drive the whole plot of Total Recall, while the ludicrously-named Dalekanium comprises most of the armor of the aliens that share its name. As long as there are goofy origins to be had, we will never run out of imaginary substances to power the ARC reactors and Stargates of our fictions, which leads us to today’s powered-by-unobtanium query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is enamored of Element 152, accidentally created by Mon-El on a whim, eventually used to create Legion of Super-Heroes flight rings, asking: What’s your favorite made-up element, substance or alloy?
5 Comments
Probably Gundanium Alloy. “A unique compound which can only be produced in the zero-gravity conditions of space. In addition to its incredible strength–several times the strength and heat-resistance of titanium, Gundanium alloy is electrically non-conductive and cannot be detected by radar.” Without that, we couldn’t have 18 meter tall manned super robots that move like humans.
I was gonna cast a vote for Durasteel, but this one’s better. I vote for it.
Phlogiston, because even though it was completely made up, learned men were convinced it was real. Honorary mention goes to “dark matter.”
Nth metal (simply because it showed up in the Brave & the Bold cartoons and so gave the writers a good excuse to include supernatural heroes and villains).
nth metal followed very closely by inertron