Top Gun: Maverick shows that Iceman wasn't tired of Tom Cruise's antihero Maverick.
Top Gun, a sunny blockbuster, is surprisingly complicated. Top Gun is a rare war film that doesn't address the nationality of its faceless foreign enemies.
Top Gun's main conflict is Maverick's struggle with himself and the Navy's top brass.
Top Gun: Maverick shows that Iceman and Maverick maintained their fire-forged friendship decades after the original movie, but Val Kilmer's smug Iceman is still a major villain for most of Top Gun.
Kilmer and Maverick are both macho bullies, so this is unfair. Iceman is Top Gun's villain, but Maverick fights him just as often, and the sequel proves Iceman's criticisms of Maverick were justified.
The fact that Maverick had difficulties after Top Gun demonstrates Iceman's point.
In Top Gun's climax, Iceman complimented Maverick after warning him that he was dangerous.