Though he may be the most successful, Chris Evans is not the first actor to have played the role of Captain America.  As befits a character that has been around since World War II, Cap has been played by several different actors over the years.  Before Chris Evans and the character became a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the role was played by Matt Salinger.  Before Matt Salinger, there was Reb Brown.  Before Reb Brown, there was Ayetkin Akkaya.  Before Aytekin Akkaya, there was Dick Purcell and…

Wait!  Aytekin who!?

Aytekin Akkaya is the actor who played Captain America in the Turkish film, 3 Dev Adam (also known as Three Mighty Men, Turkish Spider-man, and Turkish Captain America and Santo vs. Spider-Man).   Produced in an alternative universe where there is no such thing as copyright law, 3 Dev Adam is perhaps the strangest Captain America film that you will ever see.

3 Dev Adam reminds me of the old Marvel series, What If?  What If showed what would have been the result if certain events in Marvel continuity had happened differently.  A typical issue would have a title like What If Ben Parker Had Not Died or What If Magneto Killed Professor Xavier or What If Rob Liefeld And Jim Lee Had Not Been Hired For Heroes Reborn?  Regardless of the question, the answer was almost always that a hero would have turned into a villain and everyone would be dead by the end of the issue.  3 Dev Adam could have easily been called What If Spider-Man Was A Psychotic Serial Killer?

The film opens with a screaming woman being buried up to her neck in sand.  An evil criminal demands information from her and, when he does not get it, he has her killed with a boat propeller.  Who is this psycho?  None other than your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!  However, this Spider-Man is not Peter Parker or Miles Morales.  He is not even Ben Reilly.  This Spider-Man is a serial killer who steals valuable antiques, sells them to collectors, and then buys them back with counterfeit money.  He does not climb walls or listen to his spidey sense.  Instead of shooting webs, he attacks with a switchblade.  Instead of making jokes and worrying about Aunt May, this Spider-Man laughs and feeds one incompetent subordinate to a hungry gerbil.  This Spider-Man has no Mary Jane Watson or Gwen Stacy in his life.  Instead, he has a girlfriend named Nadia.  When he has sex with her, they are watched by three laughing puppets.

Spider-Man has committed numerous murders in Istanbul.  The police are powerless to stop him so the authorities ask for international help.  The United States sends Captain America and his girlfriend Julia.  Mexico sends famous wrestler Santo.  When the three of them first show up at the Istanbul airport, a snippet of the score from Diamonds Are Forever is heard, reminding us that almost everything in this movie has been stolen.

There are some differences between the Captain that we all know and the Captain played by Aytekin Akkaya.  Akkaya’s Captain America does wear a red, white, and blue costume but he does not carry a shield and his mask does not have wings on either side of his head.  This Captain is trained in karate and has no trouble killing people.  He also enjoys hanging out in strip clubs, which is something that you would never catch the MCU’s Cap doing.  As far as personality is concerned, this Captain America has more in common with Robert Downey, Jr’s Iron Man than with the character played by Chris Evans.

Captain America and Santo’s strategy for stopping Spider-Man consists of standing around and waiting for Spider-Man and his goons show up.  They then fight until Spider-Man either escapes or dies.  It turns out that this Spider-Man does have one additional superpower.  Whenever he dies, a new Spider-Man appears nearby and continues fighting.  This leads to a climax where Cap kills Spidey in a number of gruesome ways, just to have a new Spider-Man materialize and laugh at him.  By the end of the film, the screen is littered with dead Spider-Men.

3 Dev Adam is such a strange film that it is almost impossible to review.   If you have ever wanted to see Captain America and Spider-Man fight to the death (over and over again), this is the film for you.  As for Aytekin Akkaya, 3 Dev Adam was the only time that he ever played Captain America.  But anyone who has seen 3 Dev Adam will never forget him.