CBS Has Found Their Supergirl

The television world is continuing to pack on its superhero programming, and, in doing so, they've found their newest celebrity: former Glee star Melissa Benoist has landed the lead inSupergirl. The show is said to be a "female empowerment story." It's a pretty big move for Benoist's career, after she and her fellow Season 4 additions were phased out of Glee. She'll also have another Glee alum already entrenched in the network TV superhero life to help her through the transition: former Warbler Grant Gustin's been killin' it as the lead in The Flash all this year.

Supergirl will be the newest addition to DC Comics' ever-growing list of shows, following in the footsteps of Arrow and the aforementioned The Flash, but airing on CBS instead of The CW. Add that to DC rival Marvel's slate for TV — Agents Of SHIELD and Agent Carter already on air, with four more coming to Netflix — and we're about to reach peak superhero. But we've already had plenty of Superman/Clark Kent, so it seems about time for a solo series for Supergirl/Kara Zor-El.

As for what the show will look like, here's Deadline's description of the series' premise:

Born on the planet Krypton, Kara Zor-El escaped amid its destruction years ago. Since arriving on Earth, she’s been hiding the powers she shares with her famous cousin, Superman. But now at age 24, she decides to embrace her superhuman abilities and be the hero she was always meant to be.

And from The Hollywood Reporter:

A foster family, the Danvers, taught her to be careful with her extraordinary powers (which she shares with her famous cousin, Superman). Now 24, Kara feels un-empowered, a slave to having repressed her innate abilities. She's still pretty, but with her face hidden behind glasses and her hair pulled back, she doesn't know it herself. An unexpected disaster forces her to use her powers in public. Energized by her heroic deed, for the first time in her life, Kara begins embracing her extraordinary abilities. She begins helping the people of her city and they soon take notice — and she's even given a new moniker: Supergirl.

I'm giving a strong "no" verdict to that "she's still pretty, but with her face hidden behind glasses and her hair pulled back, she doesn't know it herself" line, but the rest has got me sold. Hell, the rest is part of what made me love Elsa from Frozen. Give me a lady with awesome powers learning to embrace them any day.

And all my complaints over the cliché qualities of that one line kind of evaporate when I think back to the retrospective perfection of this one number from Glee:

Tweak the lyrics to make this about her being the hero and this could be the Supergirl theme song.