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Official Site: Marvel Entertainment

Loners (originally named Excelsior) is a spin-off mini-series of comic books from Marvel Comics, first appearing in the pages of Runaways. It consists of a Los Angeles-based support group for former teenage superhero from New York, founded by Turbo of the New Warriors, and Phil Urich, the heroic former Green Goblin. even if that means abandoning helpless victims of crime to their fate. As with other continuity errors and discrepancies thrown up during the course of the Loners miniseries, no explanation is given as to the drastic change in the group's purpose between series — though miniseries writer C. B. Cebulski (the third writer to tackle the team - after Brian K. Vaughan/Robert Kirkman - and the only one to use this direction for the team) has attempted to suggest some answers directly to fans who frequent the Newsarama forums rather than within the pages of the book itself, though many suggestions (notably those centering on Darkhawk) were later debunked by events in canon titles such as Nova and War of Kings: Ascension. Although all the characters were created by different authors and artists, the team itself was created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, with other characters (Spider-Woman, Hollow, Red Ronin) added to the cast during the events of the 2007 miniseries.

The group had originally appeared in the multiple award-winning series, Runaways. They had been introduced in "True Believers", the first story arc of the series' second volume. At the end of the story arc, it was revealed that the group had secretly been sponsored by Rick Jones, on behalf of Captain America, who hoped to ensure the Runaways do not get into trouble. Following their battle with Ultron, Rick Jones offered to sponsor the team full-time.

Originally debuting in the book Runaways under the name "Excelsior", the team later received their own limited series with an option to continue as an ongoing should sales be high enough, though this was not the case. The title of the series and the team was changed from Excelsior to Loners, due to copyright issues as Stan Lee holds a trademark on the term "Excelsior!". , though the team did appear in an issue of the third volume of Marvel Team Up under the name Excelsior before Loners was published. The title premiered on April 11, 2007 and ran for 6 issues. In a stylistic departure from their debut appearance in Runaways as comic relief, Loners is not a comedy, though the covers of the individual issues still suggest a light-hearted tone by being direct homages to the iconic imagery of the teen comedy feature films of John Hughes, and the exaggerated personalities from their Runaways debut are also retained entirely for the cast, though this does create some continuity discrepancies, particularly Darkhawk's infrequent lapses into potentially-murderous violence and sudden reversion to switching bodies in a manner that ignores later events from the Darkhawk series (this continuity gaffe even being referenced in Marvel Team-Up Vol.3 #15), and Julie Power no longer having the ability to teleport, her powers now including the ability to hover in the air without being in motion, and her character purporting to be from New York instead of the family home of Bainbridge Island. In a further departure from both their debut appearance and their appearances elsewhere in Marvel titles as a fully-functioning superhero group who gather in costume, the group itself now has a completely different and unprecedented function, changing from a peer support/counseling group of active superheroes to an addiction/recovery group. It can be observed that the methods utilised by the group in many instances contradict common practices of individual empowerment found in addiction/recovery groups in favor of (ironically) codependency upon the group and its rituals. In the series, the "addiction" specified is addictive behavior: using superpowers, fighting crime, and helping those in need. The addictions are not to narcotic substance at any time during the series, although Mattie Franklin is seen getting drunk in a bar during the closing montage of issue 3 despite still being in high school, suggesting the possibility of alcohol dependence.

Julie Power and Johnny Gallo are also the subject of character retcon during the course of the series: whereas in his Runaways appearance Johnny's reasons for joining the group were given as being so he could be around other ex-teen heroes who had experienced early fame as a superhero and later couldn't cope without it , this was revised in Loners to being that he used superheroics for thrill seeking and to meet women , then revised a third time to being a response to his friend being killed during a superhero battle - did not actually occur until after Johnny first appeared as a member of the Los Angeles-based Excelsior group, though he is portrayed during Loners in flashbacks as still living in New York at the time, working as a superhero alongside the friend in question: Eddie McDonough, who is also portrayed as being back in the Hornet armor he lost, somehow cured of the cerebral palsy which afflicted him). Julie's low intelligence displayed in Runaways: True Believers and the first three issues of Loners is also revealed as an affectation she adopts to fit in with the natives of Los Angeles and her fellow team-mates , though she retains this personality for the rest of the series regardless of her revelation. Julie's age is also revised by several years, from the indeterminate "ex-teenage" of Runaways , or the ability to create shields .

The Loners has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.