3 Dev Adam (lit. Three Big Men, aka informally Turkish Spider-Man or Captain America and Santo vs. Spider-Man) is a Turkish superhero film from 1973. It's about Captain America and El Santo fighting together in order to stop the evil criminal mastermind, er... Spider-Man. Yup, it's that kind of movie.
Of course, the characters were used without permission from their owners, and some of them have little in common with their original counterparts. Perhaps the most important things to highlight are that Captain America now has no shield, El Santo goes maskless multiple times, and Spider-Man is a bad guy who wants to create counterfeit dollars For the Evulz.
For the curious, the whole movie can be found here
and there's an indepth review with lots of pictures here at I-Mockery.
This film provides examples of:
- Adaptational Nationality: Spider-Man is Turkish in this movie.
- Adaptational Villainy: Spider-Man is usually a heroic character. In this movie, he's a Turkish crime boss who likes to kill people in cruel and bizarre ways.
- Adaptational Wimp: This Spider-Man has no superpowers.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Spidey kills a showering couple, and then steal some small statuette.
- Ass Shove: Santo has a weird habit of putting this in his pants, as if he cannot afford pockets.
- Artistic License – Biology: The animals The Spider sends to eat the face of one of his henchman are stated to be mice. They're actually played by guinea pigs.
- Ax-Crazy: Spidey, again. The opening scene alone has him kill an innocent woman with boat propellers, all for his amusement.
- Big Bad: The Spider, a ruthless gang leader, is the cause of the crime wave of Istanbul.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The movie has a lot of blood and sadistic violence — certainly far more than its source material.
- Canon Foreigner: Julia, Captain America's girlfriend. Also, Nadia, Spider-Man's girlfriend.
- Canon Immigrant: The 3 Dev Adam version of Spider-Man makes a background cameo appearance in Spider-Verse #2, indirectly implying that the film, despite its bootleg nature, may be a part the larger Marvel Multiverse. Or it's just an another alternate version of Spidey who wears a similar suit.
- Will Sliney once said that he was going to draw the Turkish Spider-Man in one of the issues of Spider-Man 2099, but it never happened (there are two explanations: either it was just a joke, which is likely given the context of his statement, or the idea was abandoned for some reason).
- Will Sliney once said
- Cool Car: Painfully averted, Spidey drives some random normal car. One of its wheelcaps are even missing.
- Crossover: In some bizarre way, this is a Crossover between El Santo and the Marvel Universe.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The evil Spider-Man brutally kills people by thrusting boat propellors into them, or feeding them to blood thirsty guinea pigs. You read that right; man eating guinea pigs.
- Distressed Dude: Both Captain America and El Santo are captured by the villains near the end of the movie. This is part of their plan.
- Evil Laugh: If you could say anything good about this Spider-Man, it's that he pulls off a hamtastic villainous chuckle.
- Fed to the Beast: How does The Spider dispose of a minion who failed him? By feeding him to his mice.
- Fanservice Extra: One scene features a show by a stripper named Mrs. Janette. The agent that works with the heroes asks the bartender about her to gain information on his boss.
- In Name Only:
- Spider-Man is the sadistic leader of a gang who delights in killing his enemies via boat propellers, switchblades, and bloodthirsty guinea pigs. He also has the ability to return from the dead, either via cloning, or by magically creating a new body for himself, (it's never explained how he does it).
- Also, El Santo rarely wears his silver mask whereas in authentic El Santo films (and in real life), he never took the mask off.
- Captain America's shield is gone, and he's smoking in one scene. During the final battle with Spider-Man, he doesn't even wear his cap, with the rest of his uniform being tucked underneath a Hawaiian shirt.
- Kick the Dog: In addition to The Spider's murder spree, he also starved a pair of mice for one week.
- Makes As Much Sense In Context: Throughout the film, The Spider makes a tee-pee so that he can ambush and stab a member of the mafia, sends hungry mice to eat one of his henchman, and is killed off multiple times near the end of the film. It's established that The Spider is a "child-minded lunatic", but even that doesn't keep his actions from being strange.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Every time it looks like Spider-Man has been defeated, a new Spider-Man appears, and at one point El Santo and Captain America are each fighting a different Spider-Man, in different rooms, at the same time. How does he do it? Magic duplication powers? Clones? Just having a bunch of different people all wearing the same costume? The movie gives no hints in any direction.
- Mockbuster: It's an extremely unauthorized attempt to cash in on the fame of three famous superheroes.
- No OSHA Compliance: The factory where Evil Spider-Man is killed multiple times at has no protection, leading to said gruesome deaths.
- Precision F-Strike: When the agent asks who Mrs. Janette is, the bartender tells him that "You don't know shit."
- Pretty Spry for a Dead Guy: After The Spider's multiple deaths, Captain America spots Spider-Man hiding in a car and removes his mask. Turns out it was a kid wearing a mask to prank him.
- Psychopathic Manchild: The reason given for the villainized Spider-Man dressing like a superhero is that he is a "child-minded lunatic".
- Public Domain Feature Films: The movie is this in the U.S. and other territories since its blatant copyright infringement prevents it from being registered in these areas.
- Shooting Super Man: During the climax, one mook tries to shoot Captain America in the chest. It doesn't work, since it was mentioned earlier that his suit is bulletproof, but the mook tries shooting him in the chest two more times anyway.
- You Have Failed Me: After El Santo robs one of The Spider's henchman and fails to stop him, Spider-Man ties him up and sends mice to eat his face.
