Origin

Very little is known about Lin Li, a student at Jean Grey Institute for Higher Learning. Lin is a quiet, reserved girl who rarely, if ever, speaks, who prefers the company of Bamfs over her fellow students. However, she can always be seen in her classes and she is not afraid to join in on celebrations such as birthdays and holidays, such as Halloween.

Creation

Nature Girl was created by Jason LaTour and Mahmud Asrar and first appeared in Wolverine & the X-Men Vol. 2 issue 1 (2014).

Major Story Arcs

At the Jean Grey School

Though new to the school, Lin Li swiftly learned to work with her fellow students, using her nature abilities to distract and confuse an attacking humanoid entity when the tween-age Hellfire Club used a Krakoa to attack the school. Lin used her ability to bond with animals to communicate with and calm the creature so that it would not harm the students or staff at the school. When not in class, Lin likes to be outside with Krakoa or seeing what plants she can make grow like a rose at the foot of Krakoa's tree or a bed of clover to rest on at the base of Jean Grey's memorial statue.

Generation X

After the Jean Grey School was renamed the Xavier Institute and relocated to New York City's Central Park, Lin Li joined a group of mutants that was unofficially dubbed as the new Generation X; a group of mutants whom would not become X-Men, but instead tried to learn how to live in the 'normal' world with their supernatural powers. It was then that she actually starting speaking to other students. She revealed that she could talk, but did not like to. She remains silent for most of the time.

Despite the team's intended purpose, they get caught up in many adventures. Lin Li finds she works well with 'Eye-Boy', whose powers of seeing most everything works well with Lin's abilities to communicate with nature.

X-Men Green

After a sea turtle chokes on a plastic bag from a Las Vegas grocery store, it washed up on the shores of Krakoa, getting Nature Girl’s attention. Angry, she uses a gate to get to Vegas and confront the manager of the grocery store, who she ends up killing. She partners with Saorise the police dog, who was originally sent after her, and goes on the run having broken he second law of Krakoa (murder no man). She considered Saorise’s positive judgment of her as permission to continue attacking humans for their polluting ways. Joined by fellow mutant, Curse, and X-Men villain, Sauron, they traveled America righting crimes against nature.

Wolverine finally tracked her down while her team was attacking an oil refinery. He brought them back to Krakoa to stand trial. Nature Girl was not shy about pleading guilty, and she and Curse were imprisoned in the depths of Krakoa. However, Krakoa disagreed with The Quiet Council’s decision. Krakoa conspired with Cypher and Pyro to get X-Men Green off the island and gave Nature Girl a special staff to help her in avenging the Earth.

Eco-Tour

X-Men Green took to the seas to confront an orca poaching operation, but this got them the attention of Namor the Submariner. Although he commended their intentions, he could not approve of their methods. Instead of fighting them, he pointed them to a different arena, the savanna of Africa. This simply got them in trouble with Black Panther. While he had them in custody, the African animals gifted their rage to empower Nature Girl, who went rabid and attacked the poachers. They escaped when Curse used her luck powers to conjure a Krakoa gate, however, they ended up in the headquarters of Hordeculture, without Saoirse, still in Wakandan custody.

Horticulture’s experiments into Krakoan plant tech allowed them to track the Krakoan Cudgel that Nature Girl had lost in her confrontation with Namor. Although they tried to bully the bunch, they reunited Nature Girl with her lost weapon, unlocking her mutant power further, transforming her into a more feral appearance. She also learned the cudgel could open Krakoan Gates. With her new look and powers, Nature Girl leads her team against every oil drilling platform in the ocean.

This time they live streamed their violence, which got the attention of the X-Men.

Cursed

After publicizing their latest attacks, X-Men Green forced the nation of Krakoa's hands. They sent a new specialized team of Marauders to save the oil platform and employees, leaving the area in better shape than even before the oil platform was built. Nature Girl was pleased with this ruse, but knowing that Krakoa is out on their trail now, she believes they need to bolster their ranks. The ladies of Hordeculture suggest recruiting The Armageddon Man, a mutant Hordeculture has wanted to recruit for their own purposes. Hordeculture was slyly manipulating X-Men Green into doing their dirty work, but Nature Girl knew, hoping she could manipulate them back.

Unfortunately, Nature Girl turned on Sauron when he burned a number of apes to death. Sauron was fighting for dinosaurs exclusively and cared little for the entire natural kingdom like Nature Girl did. She started fighting him to the death, but Curse intervened. She was so upset that she was losing his new team that she revealed her secret to Nature Girl. Her wish fulfillment powers would cause her pain if she wished for good things for other people, so she usually only wished for bad things. When she saw Nature Girl helping the turtle on the beach, she wished for a new friend, dragging Nature Girl to her level, thus explaining Nature Girl's new radical behavior. Nature Girl denied it all, so Curse wished she never wished for a friend, a wish so good it killed her.

Genus Compound

Nature Girl blamed Hordeculture for Sauron's betrayal and Curse's death. They manipulated her to retrieving Armageddon Man, where everything went wrong. Armageddon Man was on Nature Girl's side though. Together, they recruit Gwen Warren, another mutant who never fit in thanks to her animal-based powers.

Unfortunately, Hordeculture was ready for them. They scanned Armageddon Man as he entered and were able to copy his powers. Once properly duplicated, they used his powers to destroy their headquarters and used their Genus Compound to devolve Armageddon Man into a primate ancestor. This forced Nature Girl to open a portal to Santo Marco so they could lie low. However, Nature Girl also grabbed a sample of the Genus Compound and intended to use it until there was no human or mutant left.

Despite her team's growing reluctance, Nature Girl chose Niagara Falls for their first genus target. Gwen finally had enough though. She sabotaged Nature Girl's plans by not wearing her psi-blocker and allowing Jean Grey and the X-Men to track their location. This angered Nature Girl so much that she evolved into Armageddon Girl and killed Armageddon Man with her ever-strengthening elemental abilities. Although the X-Men seem overmatched, they were pledged to resurrect Armageddon Man, accept Spider-Girl, cure the Genus Compound (thanks to Forge), and banish Nature Girl to a magical realm of darkness. However, before Lin could be banished, she was teleported away by Gaea, Mother Nature.

Gaea was hopeful that Lin could break her friend's curse that sent her down this dark path. She pled with Lin to find a new path because her targeting of humans, just as much Mother Nature's children than any other aspect. Lin could not see by the darkness and was ultimately rejected by Gaea to Nrosvekistan, where she continued to target polluters in secret.

Heir to Apocalypse

With Krakoa ended and Arakko flourishing, Apocalypse has turned his full attention to the red planet. However, he must leave behind an heir to steward the rise of mutantkind on Earth. So, he chooses twelve mutants, including Lin whose mercilessness towards poachers Apocalypse respected, to compete in trials to prove their worth. Before the trails could even begin, they are challenged by son of Apocalypse, Genocide. The twelve combine their power to take Genocide down. Lin can feel his toxic effect on the Earth until Mister Sinister exposes her to a power neutralizer. Panicked at the loss of her connection, Lin falls victim to an attack by Genocide and is knocked into a building.

Powers and Abilities

Nature Manipulation: Nature Girl possesses the mutant ability to control and connect to the aspects/forces of the natural world, such as commanding the elements, faunal life, floral forms and other biome phenomena. Lin has been shown to interact with, affect, and communicate with most if not all forms of animal and plant entities, as well as even being able to empathize with Bamfs or even Krakoa itself. This communication has also given her immunity to most forms of hypnosis. Lin Li can also heal and mend the bodies of living creatures, as well as levitate herself to fly a certain extent, although doing so leaves her heavily fatigued.

• Microbial Communique: Once in the Age of X-Man storyline. Ms. Li creatively used her mutant abilities to commune with denizens of the arboreal world to commandeer the assistance of settling microbial life within a corpse to glean information on the deceased's killer at one point. Something she never knew Nature Girl gave it a try.

Physical Appearance: Nature Girl has a pair of cervine antlers sticking out of the sides of her head. After becoming radicalized in her environmentalism, her hair eventually fell out with both her scalp and antlers turning black. After unlocking her Krakoan Cudgel, she evolved again. Her scalp turned blood red, her hands became scaly green claws, and her legs turned into cloven hooves like that of a goat. Ever since her uniform antlers were snapped off, they grew back sharp and twisted.

Weapons & Equipment

Krakoan Cudgel: Nature Girl received a tall walking staff created from Krakoan organic technology as a parting gift from Cypher. It has the ability of opening Krakoan Gates to any location. Secondary exposure to it after Hordecultre had retrieved it for her caused a profound transformation within the young mutant. The botanists spent time tinkering with it and now it can open portals to any given place and time without the rest of the Krakoan's noticing.

Other Media

Games

X-men: Battle of the Atom

Nature Girl is featured in the mobile card game "X-Men: Battle of the Atom" based on the comic book story with the same name.