(Wham Comics 001, 1940)
In what is sadly the final appearance of Speed Centaur, he and his pal "Reel" McCoy travel to the Arctic ruins of the City of Centaurs to explore Speed's birthplace. Almost immediately upon setting foot inside, they are ambushed and captured by wild-eyed men who escort them to their leader, a man called the King, who unusually has gone with an eccentric hair choice in every available part of his face but the mustache zone, and is also some sort of insane tyrant.
The King decrees that Speed Centaur must provide entertainment to the assembled inhabitants of the city via gladiatorial combat with three polar bears, a challenge that the super-powered centaur rises to with ease. The next trial that the King decrees is a kind of extended electrical torture that is designed to go on until it kills Speed, only he chooses to take the other way out: beating the daylights out of everyone within reach.
It turns out that the King and his men were the survivors of a lost Arctic expedition who were in the grips of some kind of extended group blizzard madness and that getting their asses kicked by a centaur was just what they needed to break them out of it. The King turns out to be Professor Dillon, the leader of the expedition, and denies all knowledge of what has been happening in Centaur City for the last five years. I suppose you have to take him at his word, though I personally wouldn't put him in a position of authority again. It's like learning that someone is a mean drunk, you know?
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