...except Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Wolverine, The Fantastic Four, Aquaman, or the New Teen Titans...

...which heroes do you choose?

Limit of 10.

Ten Western characters, five from each company, with Jonah Hex as my flagship character.

Not to bother. But I'll try anyway:

Hawkman
Adam Strange
Plastic Man
Power Girl
Black Panther
New Gods (the whole universe, sans Jimmy Olsen)
Captain Marvel
Black Canary
Green Arrow
Daredevil

There are a lot of good choices left.
Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr. perhaps. Mainly because I'd love to
try my hand at writing a Movie about them.

Likewise Ant-Man and the Wasp from Marvel. Does Hank Pym count as five heroes?
If not, I'd like Daredevil, too.

Cheater.

If Superheroes have taught you anything it should have been that stealing is wrong.

And I'd take the X-men and make a killing.

I don't think so necessarily. It's a cosmic backdrop for my new comic company, with no single character outstanding enough to make it a cheat to just grab the whole thing.

It would also be fun to grab what I could from the old Charlton characters.
(Or even their more contemporary counterparts: the Watchmen.)

I don't blame you. Kirby's Fourth World is made of win and awe.

Polaris
Supergirl
Ms Marvel
Zatanna
The Black Cat
Harley Quinn
Phoenix
Power Girl
Rogue
Black Canary

Doot is winning.

Hmmm. I suppose along the way, we'd gain the reprint rights to publish all
of the character's appearances that didn't involve the main heroes that Hanzo
listed that we couldn't have.

Definitely the SHAZAM Marvel Family then. There's a lot of comics out there.

Here is my Comic Company, but I am including extra details.
4 books, shared universe, 12 monthly titles an one annual each in the summer, double sized.
No story would run more than 3 issues.

Heroes for Hire
Abnett and Lanning write it, let's convince Steve Rude to do the art.
Cast:
Paladin
Moon Knight
Night Hawk

Blue and Gold
Giffen, Dematties, and Maguire
Ted Kord Beetle and Booster.

Silver Surfer
By Starlin with Art by Perez

The Protectors
Geoff Johns writing Art by Darwyn Cooke
Earth-based Super team made up of aliens
Martian Manhunter
Mar-Vell (Classic 70's look, using the name Captain Marvel)
Power Girl
Hawk Girl

Or possibly use up the last 5 slots with an Inhumans Royal Family book in place of the protectors and Silver Surfer books. I tried to avoid both the characters that Hanzo named and the concept of said character. Otherwise Kilowog would have made my list. I did cheat a bit using Power Girl as she is based on the Superman concept.

Let's see...gimme:

Speedball
Hercules
Thundra
Daredevil
Jack of Hearts
Box
Antman/Giant Man
Wasp
Snowbird
Modred the Mystic

and like many others, I'd just take Capt. Marvel and the gang from DC.

You could kinda build a DC/Marvel Universe out of DC's acquired characters --

Captain Marvel (Superman, natch)
The Question (Batman)
The Blue Beetle (Spider-Man)
The Shield (Captain America)
Captain Atom (Green Lantern)

Are acquired characters eligible? 'Cause DC also owns Wildstorm and all of Moore's ABC characters.

Do what you must.

(Good thinkin', though... hell, I guess you'd even have the Watchmen characters.)

Dr. Manhattan could fight Promethea. That'd be so rad.

My name is Uncle Twitchy, and I approve of this message.

I'm going to give this some thought and come back to it.

Oh, crap. I could take Barbara Gordon.
Yes, please.