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As most of you know, Captain America uses his shield to protect himself from a lot of stuffs, be it physical attacks, projectiles, explosions, electrical shock, fire, cold, ...

Thanks to the properties of the main alloy used in his shield (aka vibranium), most of the time, he comes out unscratched.

However, the vibranium is a metal. And metal is mainly know for being good conductors, both electrical and heat, whether cold or hot. Despite this, the shield is oftenly depicted blocking off electrical and heat based attacks, and the shield holder doesn't seem to feel it.

Black Panther blocking off Hoarfen's cold breath during their assault on Asguard Black Panther blocking off Hoarfen's cold breath during their assault on Asguard with Captain America's shield, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, season 1 episode 26 "A Day Unlike Any Other"

During the above scene, Black Panther was standing inside Hoarfen's mouth and used Captain America's shield to protect himself from the cold breath, and he came out undamaged, although his hands should have frozen from holding the shield.

Some answers to this Quora question claim that vibranium is indeed a conductor in some way (though they're talking only about electrical conductivity). But then, Captain was depicted blocking a blow from Mjollnir without getting hurt.

Captain America blocking a blow from with his shield Captain America blocking a blow from Mjollnir using his shield, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, season 1 episode 9 "Living Legend"

Is there any canon information about the conductivity of Captain's shield?

This question might be related, although it's speaking of the adamantium alloy.

Clockwork
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    https://i.stack.imgur.com/LjqTg.png - Marvel Handbook Vol 1 – Valorum Oct 20 '18 at 18:42
  • @Valorum Does it mean heat variation also count as "damaging" the shield? I'm going to consider that electricity conduction does (considering it involves electrons activities, from what I remember). – Clockwork Oct 20 '18 at 18:44
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    https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Ipvn.png - Marvel Handbook Vol 1 (addendum) – Valorum Oct 20 '18 at 18:49
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    How is "canon" defined here? Kind of 70+ years of comics, movies, TV shows... Is just having a Marvel stamp enough? ;D – Jenayah Oct 20 '18 at 18:56
  • @Valorum So the shield is heat resistant. But they're only saying that extreme heat cannot damage it (e.g. it can still get hot to the touch for example). – Clockwork Oct 20 '18 at 19:09
  • @Jenayah Actually... you're making a good point. I'm having a hard time to define canon right there... Umm... Anything that can be considered reliable Marvel source? – Clockwork Oct 20 '18 at 19:10
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    I'm honestly at lost as to how this question is of bad quality (e.g. downvoted). I've spent days searching for information before asking, and I wasn't able to find much... – Clockwork Oct 20 '18 at 19:31
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    I suppose it's possible that while being a electrical and thermal conductor it just has a ludicrously high specific heat capacity and capacitance so that such effects are distributed over an extremely large timescale, leaving the user unharmed. I doubt it though, that seems too handwavey even for marvel – Ummdustry Oct 20 '18 at 21:19
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    Given the number of times Cap's been zapped while holding his shield, shield which did light up, with electrical arcs and everything, but Captain was left alive afterwards, I'm starting to wonder whether the shield might be conductive, but not the gloves... – Jenayah Oct 20 '18 at 22:11
  • @Jenayah An interesting point, but although we can't see it on the first picture I've posted, the holder actually was Black Panther. Unless his gloves are heat proof too (which wouldn't be surprising from T'challa). – Clockwork Oct 20 '18 at 22:13
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    Then again, even if the gloves are insulators (which might be? they were nylon in the first movie apparently), they're damn good ones to withstand Thor or Electro's blasts... – Jenayah Oct 20 '18 at 22:22
  • @Valorum: Those images seem like good material for an answer. – V2Blast Oct 21 '18 at 04:02
  • @V2Blast - Knock yourself out – Valorum Oct 21 '18 at 08:20
  • @Valorum: Why don't you? You posted them, after all, and they seem to directly answer the question. – V2Blast Oct 21 '18 at 09:13
  • @V2Blast - They struck me as backing for a good answer, but not a good answer in themselves. – Valorum Oct 21 '18 at 09:14
  • @Valorum Hmm, the answer on that question is interesting when it comes to Cap himself, but it looks like some other people who wielded the shield were also shown to not be affected when the shield was shocked/cold/hot. I'm thinking it has good insulation, but I have no proof of it. – Clockwork Mar 15 '22 at 08:23
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    @Clockwork - I was thinking that's it's probably a dupe, since it contains at least one instance where Cap'n America expresses concern about the transfer of electrical energy – Valorum Mar 15 '22 at 08:56
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    On reflection, I've decided to dupe these off. – Valorum Mar 19 '22 at 09:03

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