The Kryptonian hero Supergirl underwent dramatic changes during The New 52, including becoming a member of the Red Lantern Corps. Kara Zor-El is not as well-known as her cousin, Superman, but she has gained a lot of attention in recent years, including becoming the star of her own series on The CW.

One reason for her success is the way that The New 52 reinvented her.  But her most extreme change was her time as a Red Lantern, where she achieved things no hero ever had before.

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Supergirl becomes a Red Lantern in The New 52

The first change that differentiated this Kara Zor-El from her previous versions was that she was actually stronger than Superman. Like Kal-El, she had been sent to Earth in a rocket, thereby surviving the destruction of her home. However, while her cousin's rocket landed in Kansas, she spent decades orbiting the sun and absorbing yellow sunlight, giving her increased powers long before her rocket eventually crash landed on Earth. Kara struggled to fit in on Earth, which was a new alien culture with its own complicated languages and customs. When she got into a fight with Lobo, the alien bounty hunter condescended to her by telling her he understood her plight. After all she had lost and all she had struggled through, this triggered a strong emotional reaction, causing her to erupt in a violent outburst of rage.

What she did not know was that the former leader of the Red Lanterns, Atrocitus, had unleashed a flood of new Red Lantern Rings to seek out hosts. After Guy Gardner replaced him as the leader of the Corps, Atrocitus hoped to recruit new Lanterns to support him. During Kara's fight with Lobo, one of these rings found her and possessed her, amplifying her rage into a mindless fury. After another fight (this time against Banshee), she flew into space where the Green Lanterns intercepted her and brought her to Guy and the Red Lantern Corps. Kara was submerged in a pool of blood as part of a magic ritual which helped her regain control of her senses and her temper.

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Guy explained that the Red Lanterns were in charge of protecting Earth, as well as the rest of Space Sector 2814. The ring also replaced her heart, meaning she could no longer remove it without dying. Kara did not handle the news well and erupted into yet another superpowered outburst. It was around this time that she and Guy met with Superman, who was also concerned about her plight, but ultimately trusted Guy to look after his cousin. Meanwhile, Atrocitus was intensifying his offensive and brutally mauled the Red Lantern Bleez. Guy hoped to use Kara as a secret weapon, figuring that a Kryptonian could stop Atrocitus. However, when the war began to look dire, he sent her away, telling her that the Green Lantern planet Mogo might help her remove the ring.

After leaving Earth, Supergirl was attacked by an old enemy called the Worldkiller who had been created in a lab on Krypton before the planet's destruction. When the malevolent entity tried to take possession of her body, Kara removed her Red Lantern ring, believing that it would kill her, but willing to make the sacrifice if it also meant stopping her foe. However, she survived removing the ring, something no one had ever done before, both defeating the Worldkiller and ending her tenure as a Red Lantern.

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