Superboy and Robin have gotten hold of the Doom Scroll, a powerful artifact that brings to mind the popular manga, Death Note but with a twist.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Challenge of the Super Sons #2 by Peter J. Tomasi, Max Reynor, and Luis Guerrero, on sale now.
In the latest adventures of Superboy and Robin, the two heroes came into possession of a scroll that works similarly to the book in the popular manga series Death Note. The purpose of this scroll, however, is not to kill those whose names are written on it, but to save them instead. In the first issue of Challenge of the Super Sons, the superhero duo was sent into the past in the previous issue by a mysterious woman named Rora for an unknown purpose.
At the start of Challenge of the Super Sons #2, they returned from their travels at the beginning of the second issue, sporting torn black cloaks and holding the mysterious Doom Scroll. While its origins remain mostly a mystery, both Robin and Rora mention Vandal Savage, implying that he once owned or was looking for the scroll, and maybe even had a hand in its creation.
In a way, it seems to act as a sort of reverse-Death Note. Instead of writing names on it that causes those people to die, the scroll instead tells the holder of people who need to be saved. After somebody is identified, the people in control of the scroll have exactly one hour to save the possible victim, which is much more generous than the Death Note’s six minutes and forty seconds. Also differing from the Death Note is that specificity isn’t exactly crucial when singling people out. For the Death Note to work, a person’s name must be written out clearly, spelled correctly, and you must be able to have a clear image of what that person looks like in your head. The Scroll, unfortunately, is a little more generic, showing a simple symbol to identify the unlucky target.
Luckily for the Super Sons, the Doom Scroll seems to sway towards victims with very recognizable insignias, with the first image appearing on the parchment being a yellow circle with a lightning bolt through it, and the heroes quickly realize they need to find the Flash. According to Superboy, the Scroll can also give hints to how the person will be killed, and the second jagged bolt on the paper that shoots through the Flash’s symbol seems to imply he’ll be struck down by the very thing that gave him his powers. The difference with the Death Note is highlighted again, as the method of death can be extremely specific, although it is limited by what is physically possible, something that would probably not be an issue somewhere as fantastical as the DC Universe.