12 Times Jennifer Garner Was A Total Badass

Whether you'll be lining up at the theater with your own box of tissues to see Miracles From Heaven or you've long ago dismissed it as too weepy for your taste, you have to admit: Jennifer Garner is convincing as a nurturing, warm mama to a miraculously healed kiddo.

But remember when she was a badass?

Garner broke out in 2001 as the fearsome, fearless star of ABC's Alias. She could dodge bullets, pose as ambassadors, speak myriad tongues, disarm nuclear weapons, and save the world — all while juggling the demands of grad school. Sydney Bristow was a super-spy superhero who could kick ass like no one else in prime time.

Then, following the box office failure of her actual superhero movie, 2004's Elektra (the disastrous spin-off of the slightly better Daredevil), Garner's filmography went a little...mushy. She put away her martial arts skills and started showing up in movies as softie girlfriends, wives, and mothers. Which is fine and all, but we prefer to remember her as the unvanquished, take-no-shit, ass-kicking heroine that we know she is at her core.

So, in the following slideshow, we give you Jennifer Garner versus...