Even though I only know cursory things on Kamala's story from Comic Drake and JesterBell, I can't help but feel like that there is no overarching conflict for her
Her conflicts in her setup is:
- Her having to balance her superhero life and hobbies with her cultural and religious identity, trying to not lose both of them for one another. She doesn't want to be orthodox like her brother and even her friends like Nakia, but she also has connections to her culture that she isn't willing to compromise with. She has conflicts with her parents and even herself, and there are villains that tie into it to try and exploit her for those connections
- Going by Champions, it's also her disillusionment with what she thought was the ultimate do-gooders... not turning out that way, so it is trying to be a hero that doesn't have to end up doing the weird fascist thing like Carol or smth.
Also... nobody has definite overarching themes in Marvel or DC, that's just... not a thing. Ever. You don't understand the genre if you think that. There are overarching themes in a volume, or a run, or a long term arc, but you don't have these kinda rigid themes, you have setups.Setups can be tweaked and changed drastically, it is a collaborative medium. Whatever "overarching theme" you came up with, can be yeeted in a fraction of a second because another writer just didn't like it or the comic sold like shit or whatever. Hell even setups can be DRASTICALLY changed such as the case with Daredevil or honestly Iron Man, if the editorial gives the go ahead.
You give an example of like, Bruce Banner-Hulk, that's just a setup, again, and that's not consistent, alot of Hulk stories that are phenomenal just don't include Banner at all, and it relies on Hulk as an all-powerful yet child-like entity that appears to contrast a villain (or anti-villain's) rigid ideals. Alot of late 70s and early 80s Hulk was written like that, even by super important writers like Bill Mantlo n stuff
Hell we were giving an example of this being a Mar-Vell plot, but funnily enough Mar-Vell is perfectly representative of why it cannot be a long-term plot: Mar-Vell's setup and stories change SO ******* MUCH all the time, like straight up character reworks with completely different powers and personality, because he just didn't sell well. So like, all of his setup or powers or long-term plots kept getting yeeted because the editors didn't like them, and eventually Jim Starlin had to SOMEHOW create a cohesive final issue for him that's good, for Death of Captain Marvel (which is great at giving an illusion that the character wasn't completely in shambles throughout his run)
Honestly you should read Ms. Marvel's debut arcs, they're pretty good.