[UltraMagnus2008]

As far as the marvel universe and where its going comic book readers should know better MU has been painting a huge canvas with its characters lately with comprhensive story arcs that involve everyone. House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, Seige, The Messiah complex to name a few. Each of those all built on each other.(sorry if I mixed up the order) While every character does have its own series for the most part with the exclusion of the xmen's alternate reading universe everthing is constantly tying back on itself and moving forward.
I dont think the movies represent the brand as a whole. The movies are just marketing tools to familiarize new people with the product and entertain the current fan. You cant really compare DC and Marvel and find huge differances, look at all the versions of Superman, GreenLantern, Batman, Wonderwoman, story arcs we've gone through. The same with their movies. Everything gets redone at some point to rope in new fans and more money.
Star Wars has the advantage because its always been one story, one universe that keeps building on itself. Its not doing anything differant than the other brands, in that Luca's team is constantly creating more material (the clone wars tv show, and extended universe brands) to market to people. Instead of retelling stories(like they should be with the prequel trilogy) they keep stretching the brand to its limits to fill in cracks that arent really there. Star Wars is whatever they make it into this point. On a linear path Id say its going sideways now instead of straight. Which is the same reason I started picking up Marvel books because its not fleshing out better than it has, ever.
As a toy line I think MU is going to become the next "it" line considering the demand for it, and with the awesome new kids show its going to continue to expand.