Crossword Genius

Rose up unexpectedly to embrace the female comic star (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

superhero

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'comic star' is the definition.
(character in a comic book)

'rose up unexpectedly to embrace the female' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'up' is within the answer.
'female' could be 'her' (I've seen this before) and 'her' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'rose' is 'sero' which is present in the left over letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for superhero that I've seen before include "Spiderman, for example" , "Eg, Batman; surer hope (anag.)" , "Batman perhaps" , "person who catches lots of baddies" , "Comic strip character" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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