Cowardly Lion / Comic Books

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• Beasts of Burden: Rex and Pugsy. Notable that Rex was a Miles Gloriosus in the first story, but has gotten better. All of the characters are regularly terrified by the supernatural occurrences that surround them, but these two (especially Pugsy) are the ones most likely to be visibly afraid — and yet neither will back down when their friends or their town is in danger.
• Deadpool: Deadpool considers Bob, Agent of Hydra, better at running away than anyone he's ever seen. Bob can become "invisible" when in danger— that is, hiding so thoroughly that he escapes harm.
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Donald Duck (who is often Miles Gloriosus too), especially in Don Rosa's comics.
• Empowered: The titular character is a variation on this — instead of considering herself a coward while still being brave, she lacks in self-confidence in her super-heroing duties while still trying her darndest to be a superheroine — which, as her friends point out, generally ends up demonstrating that she's better at it than she thinks she is.
• Green Lantern:
  • Kyle Rayner relative to other Green Lanterns. Kyle, unlike all Lanterns who came before him, could actually feel fear and doubted his abilities and heroism frequently. Eventually, his ability to feel fear made him the only lantern capable of spotting the greatest threat to the entire Green Lantern Corps, Parallax. Even Dream of the Endless once told him he'd surpass Hal Jordan because he knew fear.
  • Jessica Cruz never stops being scared of all the things she has to deal with as a Green Lantern, but her ability to overcome her fear is what makes her one.
  • More recent interpretations of the Green Lantern mythos (such as the movie) have made the capacity to overcome fear as a primary characteristic a ring uses in choosing a wearer.
• Justice League of America: The New 52 version of Power Ring is an enormous wuss who seems fearful of everything. However, he wields a Ring of Power that runs on fear which makes him as powerful as the rest of the Crime Syndicate. At least until he ran into a TRUE master of fear.
• Lori Lovecraft: Comedian Allen Roberts, who is one of Lori's lovers, is a self-described coward, but throws himself into harm's way every time Lori is in danger; including facing down sorcerers and demons.
• Martian Manhunter: Commander Blanx of the pre-Crisis comics is a villainous example along the same lines as Donald Pierce. A Dirty Coward and Combat Pragmatist who never fights fair — and indeed, doesn't fight at all if he can get someone else to do the dying for him — he's nevertheless very dangerous when cornered, nearly killing J'onn in one appearance and going toe-to-toe with Superman in another.
• Mega Man (Archie Comics): The original character Quake Woman. A geological survey robot who developed PTSD so crippling after being nearly obliterated in a mine shaft collapse that her creator had to delete her emotion programming in order for her to function, she struggles with severe claustrophobia after having it re-installed but still uses her digging abilities to save the day numerous times.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
  • Antoine D'Coolette started off as a Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey throughout the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) cartoon. While it carries over to the comics, the story's evolving tone allows him to evolve into this trope, one that will cast his fears aside to protect all he loves. Whether in the original continuity or Cosmic Retcon, he remains overly cautions but no less brave.
  • Mordred Hood, one of Robotnik's minions, is a cowardly and overly cautious guy who would rather keep his head down than fight the heroes. He feels that he isn't cut out for fieldwork, but is actually a surprisingly skilled infiltrator and an intelligent manager, with his cautiousness ensuring that he doesn't recklessly run into danger like some of the other Egg Bosses. The problem is that he's also so much of an Extreme Doormat that no one pays his legitimately good suggestions any mind.
• Spider-Man:
  • In The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, The Shocker is treated as a coward by his allies due to his unambitious nature and his preference for keeping his head low, even though he happens to be one of the most effective combatants of the team. In his words, he has no problem with others considering him a coward as long as he's able to live another day. Near the end however, events more or less drive him to cut loose, at which point he not only single-handedly defeats the entire team but was also able to defeat The Punisher with a single blast, though exactly how much of this was embellished by Boomerang (who in the end admits that he's making up half of the story) is true.
  • When he started off, Miles Morales was easily frightened and focused on the negatives, but when needed, he'd go into battle.
• Supergirl: In the story Bizarrogirl, Bizarro and his cousin are biological weapons of mass destruction, but they are quite cowardly. Bizarro wanted to escape from Bizarro World instead of fighting an Eldritch Abomination. Bizarrogirl admits to being terrified of the Godship, yet still does a bang up job fighting it after she grows a spine.
• Wonder Woman: The Golden Age Earth Two Wonder Woman is nonchalant in the face of danger. In the Justice Society stories especially she tends to strongly advise against starting fights that she feels cannot be won, but does not show any signs of fear when in said fights and even maintains composure when she thinks her own death is imminent. The Silver Age Earth One Wonder Woman, by contrast, is much more concerned about her health and life, both privately and publicly, especially after the writers stopped retelling Golden Age stories and moved exclusively to new content. She openly panicked in the clutches of a monster she could neither fend off nor escape from and retreated from an army of Amazons attempting to kill her, while her mother refused, without apology since the gods were protecting her mother but not her. Even in these less than dignified showings the Silver Age Wonder Woman was able to successfully think up strategies to turn the tide and save the day however. More, Silver Age Wonder Woman was still willing to die to save her loved ones and or the world, even if she wasn't as comfortable with it as her Golden Age counterpart. In addition to all of this, Silver Age Wonder Woman had a smaller supporting cast and fewer allies to call on than her Golden Age self, in spite of the DC Comics Shared Universe being more pronounced on Earth One than Earth Two, meaning she often had to solve things on her own where her other self could casually call for backup, which was more obvious when they were retelling Golden Age stories. In short the Silver Wonder Woman was just as capable as the Golden Age version, in some cases she was forced to do more, in spite of being more easily flustered.
• X-Men: Donald Pierce is a villainous version. He's a bully, and a Dirty Coward, but in a fight he's a match for the likes of Wolverine.

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