First look at Melissa Benoist in costume as SUPERGIRL!

I’m kind of looking forward to CBS’ upcoming Supergirl TV series. My enthusiasm stems from mainly two sources: 1) While DC are still playing serious catch-up with Marvel on the movie front, they’re simply owning on TV with The Flash, Arrow and Gotham; and 2), the 1984 Supergirl movie starring Helen Slater was so bad that pretty much anything they do will be an improvement. That last bit was clearly a philosophy taken to heart by Smallville – the last time Superman’s young cousin appeared on-screen – as they had their version running around in a powder blue midriff, small red shirt and tiny denim shorts. How chic. CBS is will be keeping things a lot more traditional though, and they proved it with these first images of star Melissa Benoist in costume as Kara Danvers/Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl.

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The costume was designed by Colleen Atwood, the same three-time Oscar-winning eight-time Oscar-nominated costume designer who created the suits on Arrow and The Flash, and she said of Supergirl’s costume that “In designing Supergirl, I wanted to embrace the past, but more importantly, thrust her into the street-style action hero of today.” And that is definitely true as the suit appears to be an amalgamation of various designs from the past and present. The most easily noticeable aspect is that it boasts the same muted colours and sorta mesh-like material as Henry Cavill’s Superman suit seen in Man of Steel and the upcoming Batman v Superman.

The overall design harkens back to Supergirl’s original costume though – made famous by Helen Slater in the 80’s movie – but it has the knee-high boots seen most recently in the comics. While it ditches the (admittedly tacky) pre-New 52 mid-riff and micro-skirt combo, it boasts an approximation of the red tights she once wore under her skirt, but using red stockings/leggings instead now. While I’m not too sold on the actual design of this last element (I think the tights or just actual pants could have worked better), I’m happy they did something, because as DC Comics editor Matt Idelson famously said when he had artist Jamal Igle give her those red tights a few years ago: “I never want to see Supergirl’s panties again.” This is going to be a show that is probably going to be appealing to a lot of younger girls, so I’m glad they decided to take a more modest approach instead of sexing her up just to appeal to the comic book reading teenage boy crowd.

I’m still of the opinion that colours need to pop a bit more though, the “S” shield is really looking a bit bland without that yellow background. And of course, some talented people on the internet think the same, and were kind enough to mock-up this version (sans leggings though).

What do you guys think of the costume? Too dark? Or maybe you think the original bright colours are bit too tacky? As with all these things though, I will be reserving final judgement until I see it in action. Just when that will be is unknown at this point in time, as Supergirl‘s pilot episode is still in production at the moment. When it eventually does hit the small screen, it will see Benoist starring alongside Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen, Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, David Harewood as Hank Henshaw, Faran Tahir as The Commander, and most recently Lois & Clark‘s Dean Cain and Helen Slater herself have both joined the cast in unspecified roles.

Greg Berlanti (Arrow, The Flash), Andrew Kreisberg (Arrow, The Flash), Sarah Schechter (The Flash) and Ali Adler (No Ordinary Family) are executive producing and writing the series along.

Last Updated: March 9, 2015