There is no Superwoman. Supergirl has never advanced in age enough to become Superwoman. Thus, no marketing tie in, confusion on the fan front (“Superwoman? Is this a new creation, or some bastardization of Supergirl into political correctness…I’m not watching and writing nerd-rage letters to the sponsors”), and on and on. Better just to skip over it, fudge the whole question, and stick with the known. It could be worse - you could be Lightning Lad for the entirety of the past half century. Superman had a distinct Superboy comic of when he was young and still in school, unlike Supergirl, who did not have a distinct phase where she was named Superwoman, and had to figure out the whole Woman of Steel, Man of Kleenix thing.
You mean there’s no version of Superwoman that caught on in the general populace? 'Cuz there’s definitely a DC comics Superwoman. There’s just been multiple versions that never really stuck.
Per the copy, she’s debuts to the world as a superhero at the age of 24. If I was a Kryptonian woman and someone dubbed me “Supergirl” when I first appeared at 24, I’d give them a taste of my powers. There’s a whole set of other issues if she coins herself Supergirl at 24. Heck, we’re not even talking about a character’s whose main role is to be a hip and trendy in NY or something. We’re talking super-powered hero.
Marketing is marketing and storytelling is storytelling. If you choose to set the character’s age at 24, I can’t think of good storytelling basis for having her be “Supergirl” instead of “Superwoman”. If marketing is the overriding concern, don’t make her 24.
I think even the Wiki shows that while there’s been a few, the most prominent version of Superwoman is the Crime Syndicate of America version, so not a candidate for a new CBS series.
I would absolutely watch that series.
The CSA in general would be good fodder for something like FX or HBO.
She’s 24 because the actress is 26, not 17. Also probably it is too much Smallville Revisted if they play her as a teen. As to not being able to think of a good storytelling, easy: Just note that long-lived Kryptonian’s consider 24 earth years still a girl, and she went with the customs of her home world.
I mean that the person who is Supergirl has no counterpart as Superwoman, since what was specifically invoked was Superman having been Superboy. The character is only Supergirl, while Clark Kent was Superboy and then Superman (or arguably the other way around). I also noted that Supergirl invokes the specific character, and Superwoman creates confusion, so thank you very much for illustrating that for me.
Tom Welling was 24 when he started playing high school Clark Kent, and Melissa Benoist can easily pass for being a Hollywood-ized teenager. I think the main reason she’s not playing high school Supergirl is because the showrunners don’t want to be pigeonholed as “Smallville with a girl” plus it give them the freedom to tackle more “mature” relationship plots.
As for why it’s Supergirl and not Superwoman is most likely because DC/Warner Bros. wants their female Super-family member license in a show.
Edit: We pretty much agree corsair.
Yup, great minds and the like. But for all I know I’ll see the first episode and scream, “SuperGIRL?!?” But comic books create their own logical traps, that if you mess with one of the parameters for practical reasons, you have a chain reaction break down of the constrained circumstances where it makes sense.
Calista Flockhart has been cast as Cat Grant in Supergirl.
The “Brothers & Sisters” and “Ally McBeal” star will play Cat Grant, a self-made media magnate and founder of CatCo, where Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) works as her assistant. Cat started her career as a reporter and has built her company into a global powerhouse.
As previously announced, Mehcad Brooks has been cast as Benoist’s love interest, Jimmy Olsen.
Wait. What? Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl hooking up? Was that a thing?
Not that I recall from the comics I read, but Jimmy hooked up with damn near everyone and everything else, including various aliens. So it’s not really much of a stretch.
Hell, Superman forced him to marry a gorilla that one time.
Here she is:
Gritty.
I wonder why they didn’t use the same “S” that they did in Man of Steel? This one looks a lot less stylized.
Her costume also has less of he alien-ish aspects of the MoS one: e.g., the no-belt-ridges-instead thing.
Its obviously just the lighting, but re: the earlier discussion about super-“girl” vs super-“woman”, she looks pretty old.
Is it just me or does her head look too big for her body?
I assume because this has nothing to do with that “universe”, but hopefully it’s to drive home that Supergirl isn’t a murdering asshole.
Yeah, and her knees are super sharp, too!
Seriously, this looks interesting - she does look a little more mature than I had thought, and I’m glad if that means they are NOT going for “high school” or “college” Super-girl, as that puts this uncomfortably close to a Smallville type setting for my taste. Hopefully it turns out to be a good show - no one wins if it’s ends up hot garbage!
Really? If they don’t link the universes, they’re going to be letting Marvel one-up them with their linked TV and movieverse.