Chris Claremont took to the stage with Mike Conroy at the Entertainment Media Show in London this weekend, with Stay Puft Marshmallow Man towering above him. During which he talked about his career, the state of the X-Men comics, his thoughts about the films and his future plans. How he'd have had Cyclops retiring to Alaska, how he tried to get Frank Bellamy to work on X-Men, his current work in novels and (gasp) poetry, and reminding us of Jim Shooter's edict that Phoenix should die or be imprisoned for life. Which is of course, where Cyclops is now. We also learned that Mr Sinister was intended to be a twelve year old boy who had built a seven foot metal robot to interact with other mutants.

Chris was asked, considering Bob Harras and Jim Lee are resplendent at DC Comics, why he wasn't working on the New 52. He replied, because he was still on exclusive contract at Marvel.

Which, considering he hasn't written anything for Marvel for a while was quite a surprise. When asked why he wasn't actually writng for Marvel, despite still being in contract thre, he suggested that we ask Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso. And then, presumably, tell Chris.