Less campy and of the moment, CBS’ likable ‘Supergirl’ shows promise

This summer’s uneven trailer to “Supergirl” made it look like a bad superhero rom-com. The pilot episode shows much more promise.

The series, which starts Monday on CBS, streamlines a lot of old Supergirl comic book stories. In this version, a 13-year-old Kara Zor-El is jettisoned from her doomed planet at nearly the same time as her infant cousin Kal-El.

Her mission: Use the powers granted to her by Earth’s lighter gravity and yellow sun to secretly protect her little cousin.

But as Krypton explodes, Kara’s rocket ship is knocked off course into the Phantom Zone, the out-of-sight, out-of-mind (and slightly irresponsible) interdimensional prison for Krypton’s greatest criminals.

Because of a warping of the space-time continuum that might not make sense even to the ubiquitous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Kara arrives on Earth years after Kal. He has grown up to become the world’s most famous superhero — thanks to a fine Kansas upbringing, I’m sure — while she is still 13 years old.

Fast-forward a few years. By day, Kara (played as an adult by Melissa Benoist) is an adorkable 20-something assistant to media mogul Cat Grant (a scenery-gnawing Calista Flockhart doing her best Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada”). By night, Kara is … an adorkable 20-something sitting in her apartment stewing over what to do with her life. An impending airplane disaster soon forces her to make a choice: Continue to hide her super-abilities or become the hero she always wanted to be.

“Supergirl” is less campy in tone than the 1970s “Superman” films and 180 degrees from Zack Snyder’s dour “Man of Steel.” The series more closely resembles its cousins on the CW, “Arrow” and “The Flash.” Essentially Kara is a super-powered version of Emily Bett Rickards’ Felicity on “Arrow,” mixed with the same joyfulness Grant Gustin brings to the Scarlet Speedster.

“Supergirl” also is of the moment — and not just because presidential candidate Jeb Bush said last week that Benoist “looked kind of hot.” But because we’re cheering for Kara when she objects to being called a “girl.”

“I don’t want to minimize the importance of this,” Kara says to her boss. “A female superhero! If we call her ‘Supergirl,’ something less than what she is, doesn’t that make us guilty of being anti-feminist?”

But when a hulking bad guy starts punching her in the face, it’s hard not to think of that terrible video of Ray Rice beating his then-fiancee in an elevator.

Because it’s on CBS and not the CW, this new super-series will need to find a more sizable audience than “The Flash” or “Arrow.” But, judging from the pilot, “Supergirl” has a decent chance at learning to fly.

This story was originally published October 25, 2015 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Less campy and of the moment, CBS’ likable ‘Supergirl’ shows promise."