‘Supergirl’ is a Force Against Fear in New Season 4 Poster

Supergirl‘s fourth season is just under a month away, but when National City’s heroine returns fear better beware.

The CW recently released a new poster for Season 4 presenting a powerful Supergirl ready for battle as a “force against fear”. You can check it out below.

While the poster is simple there’s still a bit to unpack. Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) looks like she’s preparing for a fight, her hands formed in powerful fists while she seems to be mentally composing herself as well with her head bowed and eyes closed. She’s also surrounded by wisps of red, the placement by her fists potentially suggesting that she’s already taken on some great villain — possibly as a metaphor for the Girl of Steel’s battle with fear itself.

The idea of fear as a villain is something that Benoist herself has teased. In a recent interview, she revealed that fans can expect stories in the fourth season to be more topical and explore the idea that not all villains are tangible.

“The writers’ room is being really great this year,” Benoist said. “Last season, it was a lot of fire and brimstone and a lot of homages to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was great because I was such a big fan of that show. This season they really want to thematically tackle more topical stories that maybe mirror what’s going on with the state of the world and our country. There’s a lot of anti-alien sentiment at the beginning of Season 4 that Supergirl is going to have to grapple with. I think their main premise is that fear itself is a villain, and can hope conquer it? Supergirl stands for hope, so we’ll see. I think fear is her biggest opponent yet because it’s more of a wildfire-type emotion.”

Even with fear being an intangible villain it may well have some help in spreading like wildfire. The show will feature a few villains sure to strike fear in the hearts of National City’s residents, including Agent Liberty, a character described as the ruthless and terrifying leader of the Children of Liberty, a human-first hate group who also happens to be a “brilliant orator” with the ability to easily make people believe that his stance is the correct one. Played by Sam Witwer, some of Agent Liberty’s anti-alien sentiment was heard in the teaser trailer for season four unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con in July.

There’re also tangible villains that may prove fearful for Supergirl as well. Mercy Graves (Rhona Mitra) will cause problems for Supergirl this season. As seen in photos from the series premiere “American Alien”, Mercy and her brother Otis (Robert Baker) are menacing CatCo and with Mercy having once been Lex Luthor’s body guard and Otis said to have a “savant-like ability to assassinate aliens”. It should make for a complex and interesting challenge for Supergirl, but according to Benoist it’s one that she as an actor is ready to take on thanks to her time playing Carole King in Broadway’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

“I think that playing Carole and learning so much about her will certainly affect how I approach Supergirl at this point,” Benoist said. “Every role affects you. I do think that heading into Season 4 and walking into Supergirl’s shoes and donning the cape will feel different in a great way, especially because Carole’s story is about, in essence, owning yourself and being true to who you are, that you are enough. That’s something I’m always searching for in Supergirl: ways to further her development as a woman and find more empowering stories to tell through that.”

The fourth season of Supergirl will debut on Sunday, October 14th at 8/7c on The CW.