Various Marvel comics got the spirit of the movies right rather better than the overrated newspaper strips.

Personally I don't care about George being unhappy with stuff, seeing as he seems to have been unhappy with the OOT too.

The planned Marvel Dark Empire came after Marvel's main run was over. A Marvel Dark Empire would have been a different animal from the main Marvel comics we know, not necessarily sharing their virtues (which were very tied to their time period). And we can't be sure what it would have been like exactly, because we only saw the Dark Horse version.

As for the Vong, Marvel's idea was just another alien invasion story, not the first Marvel had. It wasn't an endless series of novels and general bullshit like the NJO series ended up being.