It has been 46 years since Marvel Comics introduced a new supervillain team that was meant to show what the Fantastic Four would have looked like if they were evil. The biggest twist was that they were not introduced in a Fantastic Four comic book, and they didn’t even become Fantastic Four villains. Instead, this new team battled the Hulk, and even with them becoming the Hulk’s archenemies, the cover even references who the team was based on. When The Incredible Hulk #254 (1980) by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema came out, the cover by Al Milgrom read “The Hulk Faces Four Fantastic New Enemies.”
The Incredible Hulk #254 was released on September 16, 1980, and introduced the world to the U-Foes.
At this point in the Hulk’s comic book run, he was lamenting the fact that he had no friends, and he wanted the “stars” to explain to him why he had trouble making friends. When he tried to jump into the stars for an answer, he passed out and crashed to Earth before reverting back into Bruce Banner. This is when the origin story of the new U-Foes was revealed, and it was a very familiar story.
At Utrecht Industries, millionaire Simon Utrecht was making plans to replicate the event that gave the Fantastic Four their powers. He had an unshielded ship, which his pilot, Mike Steel, commented on at the start. Ann Darnell, the life-support specialist, said that their entire plan needed it to be unshielded. That is when the fuel-propulsion engineer, Jimmy Darnell, then mocked Mike before Simon said they were flying into cosmic rays and they wanted to pass through the rays without protection to give themselves powers just like the Fantastic Four did years earlier. Then Simon dropped the bomb that they want to use the powers for their own reasons and not for helping others.
However, what they never counted on was Banner showing up and realizing they were headed into the cosmic rays. Banner worked on the computers and forced the ship back to Earth before it could remain in the cosmic rays much longer. As a result, all four gained powers, but not in the ways that they had expected. When Simon realized Banner brought them back before they could become more powerful, they determined that Banner and the Hulk were their sworn enemy.
Simon became Vector, who had the power of telekinesis and psychokinesis. However, the cosmic radiation caused him to lose control of his powers at times, and he has often been overpowered by Hulk. Mike became Ironclad, and instead of being covered with rocks like the Thing, he was pure steel. However, his weakness was that he could grow in density so much that he would sink into the ground. Jimmy became X-Ray, and he became a being of living energy, although he also lacked control due to the lack of cosmic radiation. He also can’t change back into human form. Ann became Vapor, and she had complete control over turning her body into a gas form, while only returning to her human form for a limited time.
The U-Foes have been almost exclusively a villain team that fought the Hulk. There were minor differences over the years, such as when they were hired by the United States government to stop the Hulk in exchange for pardons. However, even then, they were villains first and foremost. With that said, the most powerful they ever showed themselves to be came from one of the least likely villains on the team. That event happened in the Maestro comic book series in 2020 by Peter David and Germán Peralta.
In Maestro #4, Hulk was fighting Hercules, the current Maestro at the time, and the Prince of Power showed he was one of the only heroes powerful enough to stand up to the dictator Maestro. This all changed, though, when Hulk called on an ally he made, or more precisely, a former enemy that he forced to work for him. This was none other than Vapor. Hulk attempted to take the city from Hercules, but the demigod proved he was too strong for Hulk, and since Hulk didn’t rage out anymore, he didn’t have Savage Hulk’s unstoppable nature.
Instead, Hulk used his brain. Hulk submitted and pretended to give in and renew his friendship with Hercules. Hulk then brought a woman in a bikini as a present to Hercules, and the Prince of Power’s unsuspecting nature set him up for failure. When Hercules took her into his bedroom, she revealed her name was Vapor and turned herself into arsine and then went into Hercules’ nose and killed the demigod. It showed how powerful Vapor was, arguably the most powerful of all of the U-Foes.
