Ever since Jason Spartax had secured his throne, he had wanted to bring his wife back. But just as he was preparing to return to Earth, Prince Gareth stopped him and told him that his wife had died in childbirth.
At first, Jason did not suspect much. But afterward, he sensed that something was wrong. Yet if he sent someone to Earth at that point and Gareth's words turned out to be true, it would be easy to make Gareth Coldheart.
So he asked Gareth how he had learned of the news. Gareth told him that when he learned from Jason that his brother had a wife on Earth, he had immediately sent people to find her, but they had found only a gravestone.
Jason found it increasingly suspicious. Before he had been exiled to Earth, he and Gareth had not been particularly close. Why would his younger brother be so kind as to immediately search for his sister-in-law the moment he learned she existed?
But he still did not rashly go to Earth. Instead, he began secretly investigating Gareth's subordinates, and learned from them that Gareth had sent people to kill his wife. There had also been an accident when they abducted the child.
Jason had been furious at the time, but Gareth was still useful then, so Jason decided to keep him alive for the moment. Still, he had to find his child first.
So he sought out well-informed interstellar pirates and contacted Yondu, who took on missing-person jobs, asking him to go to Earth and bring back his child.
It sounded simple, merely a trip there and back, but it was incredibly difficult in practice. Smuggling into the heart of the Nine Realms alone was as difficult as climbing to the heavens.
The only possible opportunity would