THUMBELINA

BIOGRAPHY

Kristina Anderson and her brother, Kris, grew up in Detroit. At some point, they developed mutant powers that gave both rather unfortunate appearances. Kristina developed the ability to shrink her body, while increasing her density, but at her apparently regular height she would only come up to other peoples’ knees. Her brother gained the ability to increase his size, gaining strength, but also a brutish appearance. Possibly due to their outward mutations, they both joined up with villainous mutant organizations. Taking the name Thumbelina, Kristina became a member of the original Mutant Liberation Front (MLF), a terrorist faction working under the orders of the mysterious mutant called Stryfe. [X-Factor (1st series) #77, New Mutants (1st series) #86]

The Mutant Liberation Front made its public debut with Thumbelina as part of the field team. Their mission was to blow up a major federal energy research facility in Wyoming, which they succeeded in doing. Their goal was to get media attention to the injustice that had been done to the imprisoned New Mutants, Rusty and Skids. The young mutants in the MLF quickly went on to more terrorist acts, invading a secret energy research station. When they encountered some security guards, Thumbelina’s teammates were of more use than she was in taking them down. Thumbelina had a problem with the time-warping that her teammate Tempo used in combat, as it tired her out. This caused her to be bullied by her teammates.

Nevertheless, she did prove useful on the mission, as the bomb was damaged by a stray bullet and Thumbelina was able to shrink down and climb inside the device, repairing the wires. She returned to her default size and escaped the energy research facility before the MLF could be stopped by the mysterious Cable. Days later, the terrorists once again succeeded in blowing up another facility. Upon returning to their headquarters, the MLF was promptly sent to liberate Rusty and Skids by their leader Stryfe, save for Thumbelina, who was ordered to remain behind due to her tiredness. [New Mutants (1st series) #86-87]

Although the Mutant Liberation Front continued to commit many public acts of terrorism, Thumbelina was rarely seen with them. Presumably, she was not used for field operations because she was unsuited for physical confrontations. Nevertheless, Stryfe utilized her in other ways, such as a contact for the teleporter Zero when the field teams were on missions. [X-Force (1st series) #1]

When the MLF learned that two of the Nasty Boys, including Thumbelina’s brother, Slab, had been captured and incarcerated in a government holding facility, Thumbelina accompanied her teammates on a rescue mission. While they battled the facility guards, Thumbelina ran off to find Slab and was rather fortunate that she wasn’t present when X-Factor arrived to intercept the terrorists. Thumbelina was able to sneak up on the guard who was keeping watch over Slab, by decreasing her size, then returning to her default size with enough force to punch the guard out. Kristina then told her brother that their mom called and was worried sick. The mission accomplished, Thumbelina and her teammates managed to escape with Slab and Hairbag, though not without a close call when X-Factor almost captured Stryfe. [X-Factor (1st series) #77]

During her time with the MLF, Thumbelina, possibly due to her awkward appearance and rarely going on field missions, struggled to make friends. By her own account, the only friend she did make was Dragoness, though Dragoness herself never confirmed this and, considering Dragoness’ haughty attitude, it might have been somewhat wishful thinking. When the MLF became involved in a deadly attack by the combined forces of the X-teams, Thumbelina and her brother, who was hanging around with the MLF since his rescue, were forced into battle. When Dragoness was taken down right in front of her, Thumbelina was worried for her friend and refused to leave, even when urged by Slab to escape with him. Reminded that their mom hates it when he doesn’t keep an eye on her, Slab lingered too long and the two were captured in ice by Iceman, who called them “feebs” without Stryfe to coordinate them. [X-Men (1st series) #15]

Following the battle, the Mutant Liberation Front members were taken into custody. Although most of the members went on to rejoin various versions of the Mutant Liberation Front since, Thumbelina did not. Her brother, Slab, also returned to the Nasty Boys but never mentioned what became of his sister. Similarly, Thumbelina's status on M-Day was never revealed.

Soon after M-Day, a future version of Thumbelina from a possible alternate timeline briefly came to the present during an encounter with the Skornn. This version of Thumbelina looked very similarly to this world's Thumbelina. [X-Force (2nd series) #4-5]

It's possible that Thumbelina simply kept a low-profile or even went into hiding following the years since her original capture. When she eventually returned, she was wearing her original costume and was seen attending a support group for mutants with obvious mutations. This group was called Mindfulness for Mutant Appearances and was run by Nightcrawler. It seemed that Thumbelina may have discovered how to increase her size, as she appeared larger than usual at this meeting. [Domino Annual #1]

When the mutant nation of Krakoa was established, all mutants were welcome to live there. Many of the classic Mutant Liberation Front members even regrouped and lived at the Akademos Habit. Thumbelina apparently did not reconnect with her former teammates, but she did accept the invitation to live on Krakoa. In fact, Thumbelina actually found a purpose for herself working with the repurposed S.W.O.R.D. organization. On one assignment for them, she joined a squad that journeyed to Skrullos to assist in defending the Skrull homeworld against an army of Mindless Ones. [The Last Annihilation Wave: Wiccan & Hulkling #1] Around the same time, a past version of Thumbelina was considered by Stryfe as part of his army of Mutant Liberation Front members for an upcoming battle with various versions of X-Force. [X-Force: Killshot #1]

Later, when Orchis launched their war on mutantkind, the town of Milford, in Connecticut was devastated by a bomb, which Orchis blamed on Krakoa. Krakoa dispatched an extensive Response Team consisting of numerous mutants who had skills that would be useful to assist with the clean-up, or with helping the survivors. Thumbelina proved surprisingly useful when she demonstrated a finesse for delicate surgeries. She was able to shrink herself down, enter a wounded person's body and repair damaged organs via microsurgery. Thumbelina seemed proud of herself for repairing seven lungs, a pancreas and thirteen hearts. She was also quite swift in her work, with an average time of five minutes per repair. [X-Men: Before the Fall – Mutant First Strike #1]