The first Exiles comic was written by Steve Gerber and illustrated by Paul Pelletier, with plot contributions from Tom Mason, Dave Olbrich, and Chris Ulm (who came up with the concept and handed it to Gerber to expand upon when they got too busy to execute it).
This group was founded and led by Dr. Rachel Deming, and introduced Ghoul (one of Ultraforce's main members) and Amber Hunt to the Ultraverse.
Much of the plot revolved around a fatal "Theta Virus", the treatment of which gave the characters their superhuman powers.
However, Dr. Deming assumed that people with powers are automatically superheroes, and their lack of training, cohesion, and leadership led to disaster.
Mastodon was introduced in the series, but never joined the team, and eventually appeared in the pages of Foxfire.