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I figured the dangerous ground was when you copied the powers of one single hero or villian.
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The Teen Titans fought some magnetism-using baddie (Polaris?) so DC has one, too. For Gravity, I can only think of two Marvel villains, some dude the X-Men fought early on and that Brotherhood mutant who died of a heart attack when they teamed with X-Men to fight that super-Sentinel. Assault Rifle? Only the Punisher comes to mind. Etc.
So I don't think they're too concerned. After all, with the plethora of superheroes and -villains the various companies have come up with (esp. X-Men francise for Marvel and Legion for DC), there's hardly any idea that you cannot say hasn't been covered by Marvel, DC, Image or Dark Horse, to pick the four big superhero publishers. So either you give them the rights to the entire concept, or you say that it has been so diluted there isn't really any defensible uniqueness to protect.
