Even leaving aside everything else--what right has she got to ask him to do all this for her benefit? She's asking Cliff to become a COMPLETE AMPUTEE for her. I mean, who cares ultimately if there's a Doom Patrol, if that's what it comes down to?
It's truly perverse if you look at it. "I had the biggest crush on you when you were human and I was a little girl, but when I saw you as a disembodied brain, I fell in love! If you don't get killed I can't fall in love with you!" What the fuck good does her falling in love with him do him, if he ends up like this, anyway? Seriously, a villain wouldn't try to trick someone with a reason that lame and overtly self-serving. I mean, it makes you wonder just what her "love" means. It would be like if Comet could be turned human again, and wanted to, but Supergirl prevented it because she liked him better as a horse, as her pet.
I may also be saying that because I don't care about this one. It's Drake's and Morrison's DP I like, and I always found Byrne's snotty contempt for Morrison's annoying.
I also agree that the QL conceit is lame. I don't call it plagiarism, because he's saved himself from that by repeatedly mentioning it, in a really stupid and clumsy way that makes Byrne seem like a middle-aged man trying to dress like a teen. No, it's just lame, graceless and unimaginative writing.