Lin Li is Nature Girl, the teenage mutant who can communicate with plants and animals. She joins the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning to learn how to use her powers and helps protect the natural world as well as human and mutantkind alike.
One With Nature
When Lin Li’s mutant powers manifest, she is able to commune with nature and her physical features include two antlers outstretched from her head. She moves to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning under headmaster James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, and Headmistress Ororo Munroe, AKA Storm. Though both miss her on orientation day, and instead she first meets Krakoa, the sentient tree creature and grandchild of Krakoa. Krakoa greets her with a flower and she then receives a tour of the grounds by Trevor Hawkins, AKA Eye-Boy. On account of her powers, Travor gives her the codename Nature Girl, though Lin stays silent at the suggestion and for the length of the tour.
While walking the grounds, Lin sees how the students train with their powers as if they are soldiers preparing for battle. During lunch, Santo Vaccarro, AKA Rockslide, attempts to catch feral Bamfs and in so doing destroys the walls of the lunchroom. The Bamfs bond with Lin, which gives the school’s staff member Doop an opportunity to punch Rockslide out of the lunchroom.
Connected to the Natural World
Lin’s mutant ability allows her to communicate with and manipulate nature, and that includes any living beings and plants. Her powers can extend to the weather, geology, matter, and energy of natural composition, even down to microscopic forms of life such as bacteria. She also possesses antlers on her head that can be lost and regrown.
People and Plant-Based Bonds
Lin is more strongly bonded to plants and animals than humans and mutants, but she realizes that neither is ideal. Humans confuse her while plants and animals see her as human. She becomes close friends with Eye-Boy, who tries to understand her and her abilities. She comes to grow fond of Eye-Boy and the other mutants who she determines are worth protecting. She even makes a deal with rats to help protect them against a threat.
Lin joins teacher Jubilation Lee, AKA Jubilee’s team alongside fellow students Benjamin Deeds, AKA Morph, Roxy Washington, AKA Bling!, Eye-Boy, Nathaniel Carver, AKA Hindsight, and Quentin Quire, AKA Kid Omega. They go up against Monet St. Croix, AKA M, while she’s possessed by her brother Marius, AKA Emplate.
A Life Lived Listening
While at school, Lin and the other students were attacked by the Bamfs who were telepathically controlled by John Break-Sky, AKA Faithful John. In doing so, his goal was to assassinate Evan Sabahnur, AKA Genesis, before they could become the next Apocalypse. During the battle, Lin controlled a group of birds to hold the Bamfs at bay and distract John, which allowed Idie Okonkwo, AKA Oya, to knock him out.
When Kate Pryde ran the school, she renamed it to Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach and relocated it to Central Park. Lin joined this iteration of the school and Jubilee’s team alongside fellow students Morph, Bling!, Eye-Boy, Hindsight, and Kid Omega. While spending time in Central Park talking to seals, she expressed her grief over the previous attack by the mutant-hating Purifiers. She was disappointed that she and the others were directed to protect the humans and not the plants. Eye-Boy overheard her and was shocked to hear her speaking. When asked why she didn’t tell him she could talk, she admitted it was because she never had anything to say to him. She then heard the trees talking about an attack inside the park. They investigated and came upon an unconscious mutant named Face, but no sign of his attacker. Taking him back to school, they discovered that a shadow was kidnapping mutants and taking them underground. The students, without consulting Jubilee, investigated further only to face M. Jubilee intervened in the ensuing fight, not sure whether to be proud of them or punish them for their reckless behavior.
When Eye-Boy’s powers were on the fritz, he told Lin since she was the only one that looked normal to him. In the process, he witnessed a raccoon stealing Rockslide’s wallet. Lin used her ability to talk to the tress and tracked the raccoon down. Catching up with the raccoon, they explained that the Rat King wanted it, who was the Animal Don of Central Park, demanding payment from all animals to live there. Eye-Boy and Nature Girl decided to do something about it and faced the Rat King in the sewers but on their way, Lin and the animals they brought with them became possessed by a strange melody and attacked Eye-Boy. When Lin came to, she found Eye-Boy standing over the Rat King and breaking his flute which had a hypnotic hold over Lin. Remembering what she had done, she felt ashamed, but Eye-Boy told her not to worry about it.
After Jubilee tasked Lin and Trevor with babysitting her adopted son Shogo, Lin brought the pair to a bear’s den in Central Park Zoo. When the bears sensed danger and roared, Eye-Boy departed with Shogo and Lin followed only to share a warning that something was coming and they needed to return to school. Thanks to Lin’s abilities, they arrived by vultures and attempted to warn the other students that something was coming. The students then faced Emplate, who had possessed his sister Monet. Lin struck a deal with rats to help protect the students, and after the battle with Emplate ended in his defeat, Trevor asked Lin about the deal she made. She told him not to worry and she’d keep him safe.
After Nate Grey, AKA X-Man, transported all mutants to a utopian world, everyone lost their memories, including Lin. There, she was a part of a team, the Marvelous X-Men. When the mutant Moneta is found murdered, Lin helped uncover the culprit by listening to and communicating with the bacteria on the body. Considering that they were mid-meal, she acted with respect, and they showed her their memories of Moneta’s last moments. She uncovered the truth about their world and X-Man, revealing that he had created the world and wiped their memories. This revelation led them to oppose their leader, and ultimately everyone was restored to their normal lives.
When Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, and Moira MacTaggert created the mutant-only haven on the sentient island Krakoa, Lin joined her fellow mutants there. She became a citizen of the sovereign nation-state.
