same as in films, although you often see characters battling to save the world, it is ALWAYS the personal inner story that seperates the good from the great.

in the same way that comic book villains are usually very much the same as the heroes with with selfish and evil motives, the hero''s personal problems and solutions are usually the complement of the superficial goal.

choose anything you want as either, just chose the other to serve it well, there will always be something to contrast a theme and make them both more compelling.

this is fairly abstract advice i know, but we writers should have the creativity to fill in the blanks.

for practice, just jot down a dozen basic plots, identify the themes and look for ones that go together, it will only take a few minutes.