I think the two are separate animals. Watchmen had a HUGE budget and was EXPECTED to make it all back and then some. Kick-ass does not have that budget size thus a HUGE monetary pay-day is not needed to be a surprise hit. JMO

Then the scene is an origin of big daddy and hit girl and is sequenced straight from hit girls diary. Basically shows big daddy training hit girl. Starting with showing her how it feels to get shot by shooting her so she “won’t be scared when some scrawny junkie a-hole pulls a forty-five.” Obviously she has on a Kevlar vest. It goes on to show how they always move around and how big daddy has this big case that she doesn’t know what’s in it but it pays for everything. She talks about how when other girls wanted barbies and new clothes she was asking Santa for a m-16. They show her laying waste to some mobsters while big daddy watches from the next building with a sniper rifle quizzing her on stuff the entire fight.

Basically the whole sequence explains how they’re both bad asses.