The Undaunted U-Foes

 Simon Utrecht was a millionaire industrialist and former US Representative who became a business rival of Tony Stark. Feeling that economic and political power was no longer enough Utrecht sought out a way to gain superhuman powers.

 Studying the effects of cosmic rays on living beings Utrecht decided to emulate the space flight that granted the Fantastic Four their cosmic ray spawned powers. But, unlike the Fantastic Four he wouldn’t try to shield his space ship at all from the rays and get as much exposure to them as possible.

 Utrecht shared his plan with his lover Ann Darnell who was an aeronautics engineer in his employ that also shared his lust for wealth and power. Together they hired her brother James and his associate Michael Steel both of whom were aerospace engineers who were tasked with designing the propulsion system and the craft itself respectively.

 The group moved their operation to a Utrecht Industries facility in the New Mexico desert where they could construct and launch the craft in relative secret. Despite initial misgivings about Utrecht’s plans Steel agreed to serve as pilot, Ann as life support, James as propulsion engineer and Simon assigned himself onboard flight control.

 Timing their flight to coincide with the maximum peak of cosmic ray activity the quartet launched their ship in the middle of the night. Despite the great measures they took to keep the facility isolated the Hulk had wandered into the area and reverted into Bruce Banner right after their launch.

 Banner, confused and seeking help made his way into the control room inside the main building. Banner watched on the control room monitors as the ship plunged into the heart of the turbulent cosmic ray storm bombarding it and the crew with massive doses of radiation.

 Michael Steel suddenly felt like the mass of the ship was crushing him and his body was pinned to the control council causing the ship to go out of control.

 James Darnell, while trying to hold the ships engines together was bathed in energy from them and the rays began to feel a burning sensation and started glowing.

 Ann Darnell was thrown violently into the life support cylinders which had cracked open from the strains being put on the ship. The escaping gas mixture then flooded into her spacesuit causing her to pass out.

 Simon Utrecht, who was linked to the ships computers, had his brain flooded with data when the radiation overloaded the system causing it to malfunction.

 Witnessing the crew was in trouble Bruce Banner overrode the computer in the control room and took remote control of the ship. Banner tried desperately to guide the malfunctioning ship back to earth safely but its re-entry program malfunctioned and it crashed into the desert.

As Bruce Banner raced to the crash site the quartet of astronauts emerged from the flaming wreckage unharmed but wildly mutated from the cosmic rays.

 Michael Steel had grown to the size of the Hulk and ripped out of his space suit as well as the wreckage of the craft. His skin had transformed into a dense sheath of chrome-like blocky, jagged organic metal and he could control his own mass and density adding to his strength and making him superhumanly strong, durable and a nearly immovable object. 

 James Darnell’s body was now composed of pure energy and found that not only could he fly but also project hard radiation in all its forms. Elated by this he dubbed himself X-Ray.

 Ann Darnell was now transformed into a gaseous state able to turn her bodily substance into any gas she chose, be it anesthetic, noxious, corrosive and explosive. Ann then gave herself the codename Vapor.

 Simon Utrecht’s hair fell out, his skin turned orange and his entire body was covered in flowing and shifting patterns of a red, orange and yellow filmy, slick oily substance. Utrecht found he could move or repel anything near him using his mind and simple hand gestures causing them to move with great force and velocity at will. Utrecht also found any force or energy directed at him could be deflected and vectored away from him. Because of this Utrecht took on the name Vector.

 When Bruce Banner arrived and witnessed what the crew had become he apologized for not bringing the ship down sooner and Utrecht became incensed that Banner had brought them back robbing them of further cosmic ray exposure and possibly even more power.

 Shocked by this revelation Banner was then attacked by Vector and then the rest of the crew in turn all of whom reveled in their new abilities and how far it removed them from the weakness of being humans.

 Banner was then held by Ironclad while X-Ray blasted him with a lethal does of radiation. Holding onto Banner’s limp form Ironclad exclaimed that they had killed him. Reasoning that murder or any other crime they committed no longer mattered because they were no longer human and not bound by humanity’s laws Ironclad decided the team needed a name like the Fantastic Four.

 In honor of Utrecht and the fact they were now all the “foes” of anyone that got in their way Ironclad dubbed the team The U-Foes.

 Unbeknownst to the U-Foes their would be savior wasn’t dead and thanks to X-Ray’s dose of radiation the passed out form of Bruce Banner became the Hulk once more.

 Battling the Hulk the U-Foes powers became unstable due to their still increasing nature. Ironclad’s mass increased out of control and he sank below the shifting sands of the New Mexico desert and deep into the Earth’s crust.

Poisoned by his own radiation and unable to control his radiation output X-Ray fled into space and exploded while Vapor, unable to remain cohesive dissipated in the desert winds.

 Vector was shocked that his powers had begun to repel everything around him including the oxygen he needed to breathe. Passing out Vector’s powers repelled him from the Earth and sent him into space. With nobody left to fight the Hulk wandered away from the scene of the crash looking for solitude in the desert.

 Because of further exposure to the cosmic rays in space X-Ray’s body reformed and his powers stabilized. Returning to Earth X-Ray located what was left of Vapor’s gaseous form and blasted her with cosmic radiation from his own body and stabilized her powers as well. Flying into the upper atmosphere with X-Ray Vapor surrounded Vector with oxygen while X-Ray blasted him with cosmic rays to stabilize his powers as well.

 Returning to Earth X-Ray then blasted the spot in the desert where Ironclad sank until the radiation penetrated to the depth he had sunk to. He then flew back to the upper atmosphere to guide Vector and Vapor back to earth.

 Stabilized by the radiation Ironclad decreased his mass and climbed out of the sands, his metallic skin now polished smooth from the pressures it had been under. Wandering back to the now abandoned Utrecht Industries complex Ironclad wasn’t aware of X-Ray’s intervention and pondered if he was the only survivor of the clash with the Hulk.

 When Vector, Vapor and X-Ray returned to the facility alive Ironclad was elated and the U-Foes decided to take their revenge on the Hulk. Finding and eventually defeating the Hulk the U-Foes planned to execute Bruce Banner on live television. Vector used his powers to deflect any attempts by the authorities and Earth’s heroes from finding their location.

 Despite this Banner’s friend Rick Jones and their alien ally Bereet located the U-Foes and freed Banner who transformed into the Hulk and defeated the U-Foes on live television who were then arrested.

 Because of his actions Utrecht lost his company, his fortune and any political influence he may have once had. Because of this he and his fellow U-Foes have worked for anyone who will increase their power or wealth in any way, shape or form.

 Since then the U-Foes have continued to seek revenge on Bruce Banner/the Hulk, battled the Avengers and the Heroes for Hire in their continued quest for wealth and power.

U-Foes, Simon Utrecht/Vector, Ann Darnell/Vapor, James Darnell/X-Ray Michael Steel/Ironclad and above mentioned characters copyright Marvel Comics

Special thanks to for being the model for Vapor