We recently caught up with the writer of WONDER WOMAN, Brian Azzarello, to discuss the current series and what the creator has in store for Diana and her supporting cast in the coming issues. How does she deal with betrayal? What is the significance of Diana's relationship with Ares? The writer answers these questions and more, and provides us with some very cool interior art from the series' upcoming issue.

WONDER WOMAN #18

Comic Vine: In issue #17 we saw the first interaction between Ares and an adult Diana. The solicit for WONDER WOMAN #18 implies that the God of War has more planned in store for the character. What can you say about what you have planned?

Brian Azzarello: [Laughs] What do I have planned for #18? Well #18 comes out this week and it is going to wrap up sort of everything we've set up and issue #19 we'll be starting a new storyline.

CV: Is this the last we've seen of him [Ares]?

BA: No, no way!

CV: How would you describe Wonder Woman's relationship with Ares?

BA: Wonder Woman and Ares' relationship....I think it's....I think he feels very paternal towards her.

CV: And how would you say she feels about him?

BA: Well, I wouldn't say it's paternal, but I think as we established in issue #0 she has feelings for him as her mentor.

== TEASER ==

CV: What inspired you to make Ares this male figure in Diana's life? And did you feel she needed to be influenced by him?

BA: I didn't think she needed to be influenced...Well, she's a warrior and I thought maybe War should train the warrior. But I thought that the character War needed a fresh approach just so he wasn't so....moustache-twirling evil, because he's always sort of been portrayed that way before. And going back to the myth we're pulling this out of, he [War] was worshipped. I mean, War wasn't always a bad thing and that's something I wanted to play with in relation to that character. You know, there was glory in war.

WONDER WOMAN #19

CV: Do you have plans to further explore Diana's heritage and relationship with her Mother?

BA: Yes, we will be doing that. Not right away though. There's some other changes before we get back into that.

CV: Orion and Wonder Woman have already butt heads quite a bit during this series. How would you define their relationship going further?

BA: Don't miss issue #19! I think that...well, something is going to happen...I don't think Superman would approve.

WONDER WOMAN #19

CV: The solicit for issue #20 of WONDER WOMAN states that although there was "one person she thought she could trust, she thought wrong." Looking back at previous issues starting from the relaunch of her series, Diana has endured nothing but betrayal: from being lied to by her Mother to being more recently betrayed by Hermes. How does the character continue to have faith in humanity and in others? How does she find the strength to trust, and, will you explore the depths of these betrayals any further?

BA: Boy, there's a big one coming. Who would have thought that the only character she could trust would be War? And herself, Diana trusts herself and that's really, really getting to the core of her character. I think that's what separates her from other superhero characters. She has a real deep trust of herself. And even when she makes mistakes, she's cool about it, you know? She's not like Superman or Batman. They overcompensate [laughs].

CV: What can you tell us about Diana's brother the "deadly first born?"

BA: We've been laying the road for their [Diana's and his] ultimate meet-up and it's not going to be pretty.

CV: So he will he be an antagonist?

BA: "First Born?" Oh yeah [laughs], he's an antagonist, all right. Not just to her but to everyone.

CV: Can you talk about his motives?

BA: His motives? He was...Yeah he was thrown...He was supposed to take over all of Olympus according to the prophecy and Zeus threw him out. That's his motivation. A lot of anger in that guy.

WONDER WOMAN #19

CV: Any plans to bring any other DC characters into this series?

BA: Like who?

CV: Like Superman?

BA: No. Superman's got enough face time in other books so he doesn't need it in this one.

CV: So you don't plan on exploring...

BA: I'll be exploring other relationships. As far as other DC characters, yes, but they happen to be from New Genesis and we're going to expand on what we're doing with Orion at that point.

CV: At what point in the timeline do the events we see here take place? Is this before the JUSTICE LEAGUE?

BA: It's now, everything is current.

CV: You don't have plans to leave the series?

Ba: We are definitely going beyond two years!