Commies and atomic weapons!
As the Frank Sinatra song says, "They go together like Love and Marriage..."
Could this be an attempt to set up an ongoing Lex Luthor-esque arch-enemy (but with lots of hair) for our hero in this tale from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #10 (1951)?
The duo who created this short-lived series had a lot of collective experience with the Last Son of Krypton! Writer/editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel and and artist Murphy (Buck Rogers) Anderson (who did a lot of work on Superman during the Silver and Bronze Ages) incorporated a lot of Man of Steel-style story elements.
BTW, Raskov returns next issue with even more super-scientific weapons.
And, yes, the irony of a guy from the "Red Planet" battling the"Red Menace" of Communism doesn't escape us...
Trivia:
The cover paintings for both issues of Lars of Mars were painted by Allen Anderson, who was not related to interior artist Murphy Anderson!
Here's a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"-style factoid (done in only four degrees)...
1) Ziff-Davis also published a short-lived adaptation of an actual sci-fi tv series, Space Patrol, illustrated by Bernie Krigstein. 2) Krigstein illustrated the first issue of another Ziff-Davis sci-fi series: Space Busters! 3) Bernie was replaced on interior art for the second (and final) issue of Space Busters by...Murphy Anderson!
4) Allen Anderson did the painted cover for the Space Busters issue illustrated by Murphy! (Norm Saunders had painted the first issue's cover!)
featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!
