By the mid-1950s, with television and paperback books drawing readers away from comic books in general and superheroes in particular, interest in Quality's characters had declined considerably. After a foray into other genres such as western, war, humour, romance and horror, the company ceased operations with comics cover-dated December 1956. All of its properties were sold to National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics), except for Blackhawk, which was leased to DC. (DC bought Blackhawk outright a few years later). Despite buying all of Quality's titles, DC only continued four at the time: Blackhawk, G.I. Combat, Heart Throbs and Robin Hood Tales.

Over the decades, DC revived other Quality characters, including Plastic Man as well as a group of other