WARNING: The following contains spoilers for New Mutants #10, by Ed Brisson, Flaviano, Carlos Lopez, Travis Lanham, on sale now.
In their latest outing to help the world's mutants, the New Mutants find themselves in a perilous position, one which requires assistance from an old foe. In New Mutants #9, the X-Men team journeyed to Carnelia, in Eastern Europe, to investigate an incident with a powerful young mutant's abilities manifesting oddly. The young mutant's powers appeared to project an area around them depicting eldritch horror with dark energies and tendrils. The first victims of the expansion of the horror were two Carnelian guardsmen, though they wouldn't be the last. To make matters worse, the Carnelian government are heavily anti-mutant.
When the New Mutants arrived to help resolve the issue, a number of their own team were pulled into the horrific mass when they attempted to reach out to the mutant at the center of the event. Before being consumed by the eldritch energies, Karma managed to communicate to the team that the energies were being projected from the mutant's mind, a nightmare made manifest. While Cypher asked for help from the Mutant Liberation Front at the end of the last issue, New Mutants #10 reveals that the team needed help from one of their old '90s foes in particular: Wildside.
Richard Gill, also known as Wildside, was a foil for the team while they were under the leadership of Cable, and he continued to cause the team trouble as they evolved into X-Force. When he debuted in Rob Liefeld and Louise Simonson's New Mutants #86, Wildside was one of the original members of a team put together by Cable's longtime nemesis and clone, Stryfe, known as the Mutant Liberation Front. Richard operated alongside his MLF cohorts in several endeavors following their separation from Stryfe, becoming nuisances to a lot of mutant hero teams. When approached in New Mutants #10, though, he appears to be living as a mutant civilian on Krakoa
Before the large reset that House of X granted the mutant population, Wildside was last seen operating as a villain during the Mothervine crisis. As he and a number of the MLF were de-powered following M-Day, they were very supportive of the Mothervine drug and its power-granting properties, hoping to restore and enhance themselves. They were stopped by Polaris of the X-Men: Blue team. Since the nation of Krakoa was established, Wildside appears to be open to working with his former foes, though there are still verbal barbs and animosity traded between all parties.
What makes Wildside perfect for getting the New Mutants out of their horrific hallucinogenic predicament is his powers. Along with having general powers such as improved agility, reflexes, and claws, Wildside has hallucination inducing powers. Similar to the misdirection powers of Fantomex, Wildside can cause others to experience lifelike hallucinations. On Mothervine, Richard could make these hallucinations solid and somewhat sentient. While usually used to disorient or confound opponents, in this instance the New Mutants are hoping to have him induce pleasant dreams in the mutant at the heart of the nightmare area, freeing those trapped inside.
The problem is that Wildside needs to initiate physical contact with the young mutant, which is impossible with the nightmare area around them. The team devises a plan using Armor's ability to protect themselves and those around her to venture into the nightmare unscathed. As well as keeping the team safe, Armor has to concentrate immensely to let enough of a space in her armor to allow Wildside to touch the confused mutant without letting the nightmare in.
Unfortunately for the team, the plan seems to be going south when the issue ends, and the rescue team is starting to fall into the girl's nightmarish illusion. If Wildside could still come through, he can reach the young mutant and use his powers to calm her. Even though he's spent most of his career fighting the X-Men, Wildside is the New Mutants' best hope of quickly ending the treacherous situation they've gotten themselves in.