Amazing Mystery Funnies v. 2 #8 - pt. 1

This is the first appearance of Speed Centaur, the first and one of the only centaurs to ever appear in comic books. It's like the editors at Centaur Publishing said, "How can we make a superhero like Superman without getting sued by DC? I know, let's make him half-horse!"

Speed comes from a futuristic city at the North Pole that explodes, leaving him the lone survivor. Sound familiar? I didn't share that page, but this one, that shows that centaurs should maybe have some kind of cold resistance.

I don't think centaurs are generally known for their leaping ability. Seems a lot like the alien race, though. Or would could make an argument for a centaur being a half-alien/half-human character.

Kicking the bear could be the Get Tough power in use. Or it could be the natural hoof attack of a centaur, depending on how one stats Speed.

Okay, we've been told that Speed leaps, but this sure looks like flying to me. That would make Speed Centaur the first flying superhero.

Speed appears to be attacking five hoodlums at once here. Is this the first recorded instance of the power Flurry of Blows?

This is a curious map. "Corubia" is almost surely Colombia. "Martique" looks like Ecuador. "Belcade" could be the Brazilian State of Roraima. Which would make Strath...part of the Amazon? And it's supposed to be mountainous too!  It's an interesting mix of real and fictional geography.

A little known benefit of riding around in a motorcycle and sidecar -- the sidecar can have a machine gun mounted on it. Who knew?

So, The Inner Circle stops this South American war, but with a pretty dodgy plan. It required two agents to slip into a foreign country, then kidnap a minister without getting caught or even detected. The minister had to go along with writing a letter asking the leader of his country to come meet him at a remote cabin with minimal guards, and the leader being stupid enough to comply with it. This was a very generous Editor.

This was a big catch for Centaur, picking up the license for Don Dixon and the Hidden Empire. And this looks to be a pretty exciting installment! This woman is like a will-o-wisp, luring Don out into the swamp so he'll drown, then vanishing. But as the story unfolds, it turns out she's not supernatural at all; she's the queen of the marsh monsters. It isn't explained, but she probably just sinks into the water because she can breathe underwater.

Marsh monsters -- or marsh folk, as they call themselves -- appear to be ugly, hairless humans with small fins on top of their heads and can breathe underwater, except for a small, elite segment of the population that look like ordinary humans (but can still breathe underwater). It is also implied here that marsh monsters are really good at camouflage and ambush.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)