The second story in Edge of Spider-Verse #2, "The Spider And The Dragon" (Ramzee, Ruari Coleman, Brian Reber, and Joe Caramagna), introduces the new Spider-UK, Zarina, a Spider hero living on Earth-834 and operating out of her apartment in downtown London. In the story, she battles a dragon uncovered in the London Underground with the power to turn civilians into winged reptiles. However, readers might pick up some references to another British hero between the action of the issue.
References to Doctor Who are present throughout "The Spider And The Dragon." The conceit of the episode, in which London Underground construction disturbs a long-buried creature, echoes the awakening of the Silurians in A Good Man Goes To War and the raising of Azal in The Dæmons. Zarina's leather jacket - itself a possible reference to Ace's famous patch-covered jacket or the eighth Doctor's iconic outfit - contains "Extradimensional Pockets," which make them bigger on the inside, much like the Doctor's time machine, The TARDIS.
However, the most obvious reference to the Time Lord did not originate in this issue but has a history going back to the 80s. This Earth's Spider-UK works for an organization called the Weird Happenings Organization, or W.H.O, led by Brigadier Alysande Stuart. If the organization's abbreviation wasn't enough of a direct reference, Alysande is a nod to Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, a recurring character in Doctor Who dating back to 1968. In the show, Brigadier Stewart runs a military organization called UNIT. Like Earth-834's W.H.O., UNIT was dedicated to monitoring and combating extraterrestrial and supernatural threats. W.H.O is clearly a deliberate homage to UNIT. Still, its appearance in Edge Of Spider-Verse isn't just about Doctor Who but also connects the tale to another multiverse-traveling Marvel title.
Chris Claremont first created W.H.O in Excalibur #6 (Chris Claremont, Alan Davis, Paul Neary, Glynis Oliver, and Tom Orzechowski). In this issue, Earth-616's W.H.O is also investigating the appearance of a giant dragon in the London Underground. This time it is an alternate version of the X-Men character Lockheed from Earth-597, a world in which the Nazis won World War II. This version of W.H.O operated out of the Tower of London, much like UNIT. W.H.O continued to appear in Excalibur and other titles throughout the 80s, with its final appearance in 1992 featuring the death of Brigadier Stuart at the hands of Jamie Braddock.
Excalibur also established the existence of alternate W.H.Os with an extra brutal, authoritarian version from Earth-2122 appearing in Excalibur #21 (Chris Claremont, Chris Wozniak, Al Milgrom, Brad Vancata, and Tom Orzechowski). Twin siblings Alysande and Alistaire Stuart lead every version of the organization in their universe-hopping adventures. While the goals of WHO are noble, they are more often than not in conflict with Marvel's heroes, initially spying on Excalibur and treating them as threats. For example, Earth-2122's version of the organization captured and tortured Nightcrawler.
Earth-834's WHO seems to operate slightly differently than either of these organizations. To begin with, it does not operate out of the Tower of London, instead meeting Spider-UK in a sewer, perhaps indicating that it does not possess the resources of other Earth's equivalent organizations. This is also the first WHO to directly employ a superhero. Previous iterations have been operated almost entirely by the Stuarts, with the occasional additional employee seeming to act as an assistant.
The introduction of the Weird Happenings Organization to the Spider-Verse represents the first clues that the events of the multiversal crossover might have wider repercussions for the Marvel Universe. WHO is a group with knowledge of and history with the X-Men, not the Spider-Heroes. If Spider-UK finds herself on Earth-616 and attempts to contact that world's version of her employer, the already embattled X-Men might be embroiled in Spider-Verse's conflict. At the very least, the organization will keep an eye on the dimension-hopping heroes, just as they did with Excalibur in the 80s. And if WHO's first appearance is any indication, there might be more to Spider-Verse's dragon attack than meets the eye.