Jean Grey School for Higher Learning[]

Not much is known about Lin Li's past, but at some point, she started attending the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. On her first day, she was given a tour of the school by Trevor Hawkins (also known as Eye-Boy). During the tour, Trevor's daydreaming caused him to miss her entire conversation with Krakoa and, with Lin Li choosing not to talk him, he was led to believe she was mute. Later that day, their fellow student Rockslide destroyed the canteen walls while chasing Bamfs through the hallways. This led to Lin developing an immediate bond with the Bamfs, who tried to find safety from Rockslide on Lin's shoulders.^[1][8][9]

When Faithful John arrived at the Jean Grey School in order to kill Genesis before he could become the "next Apocalypse", he telepathically ordered the Bamfs to attack the students. To distract John and save her fellow teammates, Lin Li, now going by Nature Girl, commanded dozens of birds to fend off the Bamfs, giving Oya the chance to knock the villain out.^[10]

Generation X[]

When Kitty Pryde relocated the X-Men to Central Park and the school was renamed to the Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach, Lin Li decided to join in. She became part of Jubilee's team and was reunited with Eye-Boy,^[11] who finally learned his teammate could talk.^[8]

Once, Lin and Trevor were tasked to babysit and protect Shogo, Jubilee's son. To do so, Nature Girl brought the two to the Central Park Zoo, inside the Bears' Den, despite Eye-Boy's concerns. While they were there and Shogo was having fun playing with the bears, the bears sensed danger and roared viciously. Eye-Boy picked up Shogo immediately and carried him away, and Lin Li summoned a trio of vultures to take them back to school and help handling the return of Krakoa.^[12]

After many adventures together, Lin Li told Trevor that she was aware of his feelings for her, but the two simply remained friends.^[13]

Age of X-Man[]

Sometime later, Lin was transported to a reality created by Nate Grey, as an attempt to create a utopia for mutants to live in. Those Nate brought there had their memories of their previous lives erased so there would be no resistance.^[4]

In this altered plane of existence, Lin was part of the official X-Men team and her appearance had been changed as well, with her antlers being larger than before.^[4]

When Nate’s Utopia eventually fell apart, Lin’s appearance was reverted to normal and all her real-world memories were returned. Still, she was incredibly reluctant to go back to reality along with Nightcrawler and Colossus. She even begged Nate to let her stay, but, in the end, she didn’t have a choice.^[14]

Krakoa[]

Lin Li eventually joined the new Mutant Nation of Krakoa^[6] and, after a while, took part in the Wild Hunt organized by the New Mutants, along with other young mutants that Dani Moonstar believed needed guidance.^[15]

Another mutant who needed guidance was the young Curse, whose jinx powers made her an outcast. One day, as a sea turtle washed on the shores of Krakoa choking on a plastic bag, Curse used her powers to make Lin Li an outcast as well and sympathetic towards her, unintentionally sending her on a vengeful journey to make humanity pay for their crimes against the planet.^[16] Using one of Krakoa's Gateways, Lin Li traveled to Las Vegas in order to find the ones responsible. She confronted the owner of Owen's Grocery, the brand of the plastic bag, and, after growing disgruntled by his apathy about the loss of animal lives, Lin jabbed the complacent store owner in the neck with a pair of scissors.^[17]

The police were called to the scene and sent a trained dog to apprehend her, but, using her powers, Nature Girl tamed and befriended the canine, who also communicated its dissatisfaction with the way humans treated the planet. Lin then summoned several creatures of the wild as a distraction, as she made an escape with her new friend, whom she renamed Saoirse.^[17]

She would soon be pursued by Wolverine, under orders of Charles Xavier, when they became aware that she'd killed a human in Vegas,^[17] but the young mutant and her new companion managed to sidestep the former hunter with the aid of a bear and a wolf pack. Meanwhile, she was joined by the enthusiastic Curse, and they formed X-Men Green, killing a few workers of an oil company that was polluting the environment.^[18]

They evaded capture for a long time, during which Lin Li changed a lot, both psychologically (going increasingly radical) and physically (losing her hair).^[19] Given time, however, Wolverine managed to capture the duo, and, as expected, they were sentenced to the Pit of Exile. They accepted their fate with no regret, but Cypher, at the request of Krakoa, arranged for them to escape with Pyro, despite no longer being allowed on the island. As a parting gift, Cypher presented Nature Girl with the mysterious Krakoan Cudgel.^[20]

Outcast[]

Joining forces with Sauron, Nature Girl and Curse resumed their fight against humankind,^[21] finding themselves toe to toe with the likes of Namor^[22] and Black Panther.^[23] Amidst these confrontations, Lin Li got both her antlers chopped off and the cudgel was lost.^[24]

After escaping Black Panther through a portal created by Curse, the group found themselves at the headquarters of Hordeculture, a group of fellow environmental terrorists. There, Lin Li was reunited with the cudgel, that had been found by Hordeculture sometime before. They weren't able to touch it without getting severe burns, but they figured they might be able to manipulate Lin Li to use it on their behalf. The moment Nature Girl touched the cudgel, she regrew new antlers and her legs gained goat-like features.^[24]

To better achieve their plans, the team decided to try and release the Armageddon Man, a mutant with the power to cause natural catastrophes. Nature Girl figured her connection with Planet Earth would allow her to control him, since he was basically the embodiment of nature's wrath. And she was right, the two had indeed a connection. The problem was that, by then, Nature Girl had grown increasingly cruel due to Curse's wish and was starting to lose the grasp of reality, causing Armageddon Man to start acting erratic as well. As she and Sauron turned against each other in the middle of a storm caused by Armageddon Man, Curse revealed her part in making Nature Girl become this evil. However, Nature Girl didn't believe her, forcing Curse to use her powers to try to revert the situation and suffering the consequences of using them for good.^[25]

Lin Li mourned her friend, but Curse's death only made her more driven to make humankind pay for their crimes.^[26] Needing a new ally, Nature Girl and Armageddon Man went after Gwen Warren, a former student of Jean Grey School. Nature Girl attacked her with animals to trigger her spider transformation and then approached her to calm her down and offer acceptance and revenge against those who'd done her wrong.^[27]

The three of them then charged against Hordeculture, whom Nature Girl considered responsible for Curse's death. They were able to do a great deal of damage, but Hordeculture managed to devolve Armageddon Man into some extinct lemur and escape before their headquarters collapsed. Once again forced to lay low for a while, Nature Girl, Gwen and the lemur Armageddon Man retreated to Santo Marco, where they began plotting their next step.^[28]

Despite Lin Li's expectations for Gwen, she quickly found herself disillusioned with Lin Li's ideas, especially after seeing her hurt Eye-Boy, who'd come in secret to check up on her.^[29]

With Gwen alerting the X-Men to their location, Lin Li grew furious and evoked all the forces of nature to hold herself against the other mutants, inadvertently killing lemur Armageddon Man in the process. Now calling herself Armageddon Girl, she was more uncontrollable than ever before, eventually causing the goddess Gaea to intervene.^[30] Gaea told her that she looked after all her children and Li hadn't been well since she was affected by Curse's powers. Gaea offered to remove Curse's influence on her, but Lin Li declined, leading Gaia to abandon her and reveal that she had lost her approval.^[31]

Trials of Apocalypse[]

When Apocalypse decided to leave Earth for Arakko, he offered to Lin and to other eleven mutants the possibility to be selected as his heir by facing trials and challenges of his creation; he invited Armaggeddon Girl for her mercilessness against her enemies and she agreed to participate in the contest, believing that inheriting the powers and role of Apocalypse would make her better at protecting Earth. The twelve had to face Apocalypse's renegade son, Genocide, and, while Lin Li was preparing to face him, Mister Sinister took away her powers. Genocide then unleashed a powerful beam at her, propelling her into a building and knocking her out.^[32] Before she could succumb to her wounds, Apocalypse teleported her to a hidden base to bring her back to health.^[33]

Nature Manipulation: Nature Girl's powers are directly connected to the natural world and thus she can communicate, influence, manipulate, and control nature: all living beings, plants, natural phenomena (such as the weather and geology of the Earth), and the matter and energy of which all these things are composed.^[34]

• Animal Manipulation: Eye-Boy once stated that she has the power to control and bond with every living species of animal on Earth.^[34]
• Botanopathy: She possesses the ability to communicate with and manipulate all plant life. She is able to cause plants to grow, move, attack, rise from the soil and "walk", mutate plants by rearranging DNA structure, and revive withered or dead plants.^[34]
• Elemental Manipulation: She possesses the ability to control and manipulate the elemental forces of nature.^[34]
  • Weather Control: She can control and affect the weather in a certain area.^[34]
• Healing: She possesses the ability to purify, heal, and generally influence the health of nature.^[34]
• Microbial Communication: While a part of the Age of X-Man plane of existence, Lin decided to focus her powers on something new. Reaching out to the microcellular life forms that set in when bodily necrosis occurs to glean information on a cadaver's maker, Lin could see the shared historical feedback of both the victim and killer's memories.^[35]
• Nature Bonding: Shown to be able to quell and unify with even some of the more feral entities, like the Bamfs.^[1] Despite being silent to people in general, Lin is able to communicate with both animals and plants.^[8] Her persuasive power allows her to control animals and put them in action against enemies,^[36] as she did when Faithful John arrived at the Jean Grey School to kill Evan Sabahnur. In this situation, Nature Girl used her command over animals to distract John, leaving him vulnerable to other attacks.^[37]
• Flight: She has the ability to fly for a limited time.^[34][15]
• World Connection: Lin's abilities establish a binding link with the planet and all of its denizens, particularly the floral & fauna kingdom.^[38]

Krakoan Cudgel: Before departing the mutant homeland forevermore, Cypher bequeathed the young mutant a cudgel with structuring similar to a Krakoan gate, although its powers were left a mystery.^[20]

• Lin Li was shown to have a crush on Doop when he was teaching Advanced Mutant Sexuality at the Xavier Institute. She considered him to be "very handsome."^[39]
• Logan once commented that Lin Li smells more like an animal than a mutant.^[9]