A group of villains published by
Marvel Comics. The U-Foes first appeared in
The Incredible Hulk #254 in 1980.
Industrialist Simon Utrecht is a man obsessed with power. He has money and influence, but still desires greater, more personal power. To this end, Utrect uses his wealth have a rocket constructed in the desert of the American southwest. Utrecht has read accounts of how scientist Reed Richards and his crew gained amazing powers when they flew an unshielded spaceship into a belt of cosmic radiation and decided to duplicate the flight to gain powers for himself. Accompanied by pilot Mike Steel, propulsion expert Jimmy Darnell, and life support expert Ann Darnell, Utrecht launched the ship, planning to expose the crew to greater amounts of cosmic rays, supposing that the greater level of radiation will grant them greater powers.
Fate intervened in the form of the Incredible Hulk. In an effort to escape those that were constantly chasing him, the Hulk attempted to jump to the stars. Though he was able escape the atmosphere, the Hulk passed out due to the lack of oxygen and plummeted back to Earth, landing close to Utrecht's launch site. The Hulk transformed into Bruce Banner, who was awakened by the sound of the launching rocket. Banner roused himself and set off for the control room of the rocket.
Meanwhile, the crew of Utrecht's ship began to be exposed the cosmic radiation. Banner arrives and reworks the navigation program to bring the ship back to Earth to save the crew. The ship crashes and the crew comes from the wreckage, transformed by the radiation. The group calls themselves the U-Foes and are made up of:
- Vector: (Simon Utrecht) - Utrecht gained the ability to attract or repel objects at will
- Vapor: (Ann Darnell) - Possesses the ability to transform into a gaseous form with the properties of any type of gas
- X-Ray: (Jimmy Darnell) - Transformed into a being of pure radiation with the ability to project any form of radioactivity
- Ironclad: (Mike Steel) - Transformed into a being of incredible strength composed of metal
The U-Foes fought Banner's alter-ego, the Hulk, and were able to stand their ground with him, nearly defeating him. Soon, however, the group found that their prolonged exposure to the cosmic rays caused their new powers to flare out of control.
Ironclad continued to gain mass, eventually sinking into the ground.
X-Ray's powers caused him to flare out of control and violently explode.
Vapor lost control of her gaseous form and disipated, while
Vector's new abilites caused him to repel not only the oxygen he breathed but the Earth itself causing him to drift of the ground into space.
The U-Foes later return after absorbing enough cosmic rays to gain control of their new powers. They fought with the Hulk a number of times over the years, each time meeting with defeat. They have also clashed with the likes of the Avengers (both the original and the West Coast teams) and the hero Darkhawk. The U-Foes have also battled the Heroes for Hire.