t says something about the movie industry, or at least the cottage industry of speculation and rumour that has sprung up around this latest run of comic-book movies, that Jennifer Garner has been roused in the early hours of a Friday morning to promote a film that won’t get to theatres until February, 2005. All while having extensive makeup and a wig applied — a process that takes two hours even when she’s not conducting cellphone interviews with faraway journalists.

Various online nerdwebs have already been granted access to the star of Elektra, a spinoff of last year’s Daredevil (co-starring Garner and Ben Affleck), which picks up on the story of the Marvel comic-book heroine. Staff from these online enclaves were even granted tours of the Vancouver set in hopes they might swell the hype with some fevered reports back to their readership.

"Elektra, Mark and Abbey are discovered at the abandoned Natchios mansion by the Hand ninjas," reads one such dispatch. "As the trio flees into the woods, the ninjas pursue. In the woods, Elektra takes on some of the fighters, but she is ultimately defeated by Typhoid Mary. Pinning Elektra on the ground, Mary kisses her with her lethal lips. With Elektra unconscious and out of action, she turns on Abbey and Mark. Little do they know that Abbey has talents beyond their expectations."

Film staff are probably still mopping up the drool.

Having thoroughly charmed the self-described "geek press," Garner has made a slight step up the evolutionary ladder of journalism to "National Newspapers, Canada." And so she sits, phone in hand, switching ears periodically to allow her stylist access to each chiselled cheekbone. It’s 7 a.m. in the Pacific Standard Time zone, and she sounds unreasonably chipper.

Makeup, she informs us, is actually quite fun.

"You eat and we chat. And we’re close," she says of her mascara technicians. "So it’s all good."

Vancouver, she adds, is "gorgeous." And though she’s worked there before, Elektra has required out-of-town shooting in the wilds of British Columbia, so she can now gleefully name-drop Shannon Falls and Deep Cove.

And deep in these coves, she can safely avoid the online communities currently poring over every minor bit of Elektra-related information in search of spoilers and pictures of Garner in curve-hugging costume.

"One of our producers gives me little tidbits, but I tend not to go online because my first experience of checking out what people had to say about me online was so brutal that it taught me: Just don’t do it," she relates, punctuated with her near-trademarked goofy giggle. "It was years ago for an episode of [Felicity] where I came between the two characters who were in a romantic relationship. And everything about me was torn about. It really depressed me. More than reading reviews. It really got to me. And I just thought, ’I can never do this again.’ "

Though she does acknowledge the jeers that met her character’s black attire in Daredevil. Seems the comic-book character wore red and so, for Elektra’s star turn next winter she will be more appropriately dressed. Though when we last left Elektra, black, form-fitting leather was the least of her worries. She was dead. Or so we assumed.

"You saw a thumbnail sketch of the first one-millionth of what her saga is," Garner says, "and it was crying out to me, because we left her in such a dark place, to finish the story around and take her back to her own redemption ultimately."

And so shall she be redeemed.

Speculation as to the hows and whens and whys of said final victory we’ll leave to the nerdwebs. Garner is more interested, it seems, in getting philosophical.

"I love this character. I love how much it’s about no matter how deep you go, no matter how bad a person the world conspires to make you, something could happen that will lead you back to yourself. Whether you like it or not," she says. "And I don’t love that story in a personal way. But I have so much empathy for her. And just care for her so much."

She must. Otherwise we probably wouldn’t be talking right now. Unless, of course, Garner was offering some sort of cheery wake-up call. Which she seems just about earnest and sweet enough to pull off.

But there is little time for that. It’s 7 a.m. where she is. Most people are just tucking into their Corn Pops. And Garner is not done philosophizing.

"I see [Elektra] as good," she says. "I see her as somebody who’s able to close herself off, if she needs to, from the world, from herself, from emotion. But ultimately, I think, in spite of herself, she is good."